As things slow down (even a little)

If you’re reading this during that strange, in-between stretch of the year – where some people are fully off, some are half-working, and nothing feels quite normal – this is right on time.

This week is sometimes a moment where there’s a little breathing room.

Not enough to overhaul anything.
Not enough to fix what didn’t work.
But enough to notice.

So here’s a very simple prompt, if you’re up for it:

Take a look at the notes you captured over the last week –
the things that piled up, the inefficiencies you powered through, the moments where you thought, there has to be a better way.

Don’t solve them yet.

Just notice the patterns.

You might see that a lot of what made December hard wasn’t the work itself –
it was how the work was flowing (or not flowing) through your business, coupled with the “pile-up” effect of stuff that could have (but didn’t) happen sooner in the year. (Binge-ing CPE, perhaps?)

That’s not a personal weakness.
It’s usually a signal of systems weakness.

January is a much better month for working on your business than December ever is.
And this quiet stretch can be a bridge between the two.

In the next email, I want to talk about why these signals tend to show up right when a firm is growing – and why trying to handle them with more effort usually backfires.

For now, noticing is enough.