What will you do differently next year? I was taught that it is trite to start an article with ‘in these volatile, unpredictable and challenging times,’ but in this case, I’ll make an exception. All we can control is where we focus our time and energy, and our behaviour too of course.
My clients are straddling new and old worlds as they battle to reclaim their attention. Exhausted by the brain fog that comes with overuse of tech, they are ditching Tik Tok in favour of long form journalism. They are playing around with Microsoft Copilot and Chat GPT to make their lives easier, whilst reviving old school time management rules like first things first and doing one thing at once and doing it well.
Two themes stood out from recent Crazy Busy events:
- Aggressive Simplification
People are fed up with being time poor, with every moment scheduled and no time for themselves. They want to simplify their lives to remove distractions and have fewer choices. That includes deleting apps, clearing out clutter in all aspects of their lives from clothes to low value projects, and setting stronger boundaries around time-sucks like meetings without decisions. They need their business to be nimble and responsive: gritty, not stuck in the mud.
A reminder of the Warren Buffet quote on how successful people differ from everyone else because they say no more often:
They say no to opportunities and things that don’t excite them, speak to their values or further their mission in life. They say no to spending time with uninspiring, critical, or negative people who drag them down. They say no to overworking and neglecting self-care and family. They recognise that everything else suffers if they can’t take care of themselves.
What do you need to be more ruthless about?
- Being Accountable
Once they’ve committed, people want to go all in on what matters to them. They intend to excel in their roles, whether that’s their professional job description or the personal roles they fulfil – parent, partner, friend, family, or community member.
Being accountable means being forward-focused: not just getting tasks done but following something through to completion even when it’s not technically your responsibility. It means owning your mistakes and apologising if you need to. It is giving and receiving feedback and having your team’s back. It might mean looking out for a colleague who seems off form and needs someone to talk to. It’s managing your mood and showing up consistently. It’s owning your part of the problem, not blaming everyone else when things go wrong: not the customers, the system, the CEO, the government, the teachers, your parents, or anyone else.
How will you blow the doors off 2025?
Here’s a simple exercise to decide what to say no to next year and what is worthy of a whole-hearted ‘hell yes’.
- What was important to you this year but you didn’t spend enough time on it? What were the consequences of this?
- What did you spend too much time on, that added little or no value to your life?
- Can you swop the two?
One final question:
If you believed in yourself, what would you prioritise in 2025?
That’s it from me this year. Thanks so much for reading my articles, working with me and pushing me to keep coming up with fresh ideas.
Badly Behaved People, will be out in time for Christmas, to buy or order at your local bookshop or on Amazon. It’s real-life case studies from my coaching practise, featuring 15 common problem personalities and how to handle them. You might even recognise some of them.