Kia ora,

It’s that time of year where you ask people how their day was and they look back at you with slightly glazed eyes and issue an unintelligible grunt.

(Or maybe that’s just me doing the grunting?)

This newsletter is short & sweet this week because ya girl is feeling tired. Good tired, but nonetheless, tired.

So this newsletter is a MUST-DO to help you slay the start to 2025.

Estimated Read time: 3 minutes 27 seconds

The Deep Dive: Must-Do Thing to Set Yourself Up to Slay 2025

Work deadlines, family dynamics and festive catch ups with everyone you’ve ever met since exiting the womb make this time of year feel like a slow and sweaty crawl to the finish line.

However, before my brain completely turns to holiday mush, I know there’s one essential task I MUST do before powering down on 2024.

And that thing is planning my first week back in 2025.

Because even though at this particular stage of the grind I feel like I’d rather skewer my eyeballs than do more planning, I know that this will kickstart my year like nothing else.

Picture this: it’s 2025…You’ve successfully landed yourself back in your office chair. You’re feeling optimistic about the year ahead, but first you need to wrap your head around where you left things last and to reset…

1 week later: after spending hours thinking about the beach you’d rather be on or procrastination scrolling your social media platform of choice — you’re finally up to speed with where things were at in December.

Add another 3 or 4 days and you’re ready to actually get started on work.

Now instead: imagine rocking up bleary-eyed in January to find a complete list of step-by-step instructions (think Hello Fresh recipe card vibes) on what your exact first steps should be.

Sound good?

As someone who has tried and tested this the past two years, I promise you, it is.

The best way to circumvent the new year lag week is to get your end of year smart brain to write a road map for your post-holiday slow brain. 

Get granular and specific on the exact actions you’re going to take on your first week back and document them somewhere you will easily find them in the new year.

Action of the Week:

What do you need to achieve in your first week back at work?

Here’s how to plan out your first week back in 2025 – think of this as creating a Hello Fresh recipe card for your first week back.

1.    Identify your 2-3 big projects that need to progress in January

2.    Write where you’re at currently with each project and where they ideally need to be by the end of January.

3.    Identify the first 3-5 steps required for each

4.    Once you have done this for each project, you can assign subtasks to days of the first week back. A good way to do this is by putting events in your calendar for each task. Include in the event all supporting info and links to any relevant documents or email chains so that future you doesn’t have to go searching for it.

Here’s an example below:

Goal: to have a project management tool successfully implemented by end of Feb

1.    Review available project management tools by researching online, watching youtube videos. Map findings in spreadsheet

2.    Select most suitable tool for needs and sign up for free trial

3.    Find YouTube videos on how to be optimise tool for your specific industry, team type or business

4.    Practice setting up tool in line with recommendations

5.    Determine rules of play for the tool and document these(e.g. every task created needs to have an assignee, a time estimate and a due date).

And there you have it! Bleary-eyed post-holiday you will be SO thankful. And very productive. Self-five.

Inspo & Recommendations:

LinkedIn post:  “My Favourite Newsletters Right Now” by yours truly

Podcast ep:  Holiday Hustles by She’s On the Money

Learning: I learned about Situational Leadership this year and found it very helpful. Give it a google if you’re learning how to be a good leader.

Tech: ClickUp has been my favourite project management tool to date – especially for collaboration and teams.

Money: Last min pre-Christmas catchup? Go for a walk and a coffee/ice cream instead of a full noise dinner.

Love from your business-minded friend,

Elise