Reading time: Less than 3 minutes
What do you do in December? Is it a party month for you? Or, like me, do you enjoy the chance to reflect and plan….
My worst December memory? Actually, I have two.
1) My parents owned a struggling weekly newspaper and one Christmas — the only time of year when we could be guaranteed to make money — our photo-typesetting equipment died.
We spent three days in abject misery, staring at the broken equipment, desperately working to repair it ourselves, then trying to find a repair person (in December!) and looking, broken-heartedly at the plethora of ads for which we would no longer be paid.
2) A few years later, I had “graduated” to working for a daily newspaper. Because it was a union shop and I had no seniority, I always had to work over the Christmas holidays. My shift started very early so there I was New Year’s Eve morning, proofing pages at 6 am. I was a senior editor, so I never got to leave exactly eight hours later. But things were quiet that day, so I rolled out of the office at a reasonable hour.
My boyfriend of the time and I were having friends over for a late, celebratory dinner and I was cooking. It was fun but I expected the friends to leave shortly after midnight. Instead, they stayed til 3 am. For the last 60 minutes of their visit, the phrase “please, please, leave… I need to sleep” reverberated in my brain like the dull metallic thud of a hammer on a metal block.
December is a funny month. Filled with obligations and parties — some of which are fun, others merely a burden — it’s a month in which almost no one expects to get any real work accomplished.
At the same time, bloggers and media outlets become obsessed with the year-end wrap-ups. You know what I mean: The 10 best movies or best 25 TV shows of 2013. Top 10 events of 2013. Person of the Year. (I’ve even been guilty of this myself with my Recommended reading for Christmas 2013.)
I always used to joke that I had to get out of the newspaper business before the year 2000 (which, indeed, I did) because I couldn’t possibly bear the job of producing any Millennial wrap-ups.
All these issues aside, however, I like working in December. My phone doesn’t ring as much. My email stops thinking it’s a fire hose and instead becomes a garden sprinkler, languorously watering the plants. Suddenly, I have the time to plan. I can work for a few hours a day, I can write and I can read at lot.
By the time you see this column, there will still be 15 days left in December. I’m not counselling you to work like a maniac but instead, I’m suggesting that you take advantage of the rest of society’s allergy to work in December. See if you can identify your goals. Think about what worked well for you in 2013. And what you want to do in 2014.
Most of all, plan more spare time for yourself next year. Did you know that Warren Buffett’s datebook is virtually empty? “You’ve gotta keep control of your time,” he says, “and you can’t unless you say no. You can’t let people set your agenda in life.”
Many would-be writers fail to, well, write. This is not a failure of talent. Or of ability. Or of intentions. Generally, it’s a failure to plan. Writing doesn’t happen by magic.
It requires sitting at your keyboard (or with your notebook) day in and day out. Even when you don’t feel like it. Even when doubt and fear work overtime to undo you.
What’s your plan for dealing with that in 2014?
This is my last Power Writing column before Christmas. I’m taking Dec. 24 to Dec. 30 off from blogging (although rest assured I’ll be busy planning.) You’ll see me again on New Year’s Eve.
What do you like to do in December? We can all learn from each other so please share your thoughts with my readers and me by commenting below. (If you don’t see the comments box, click here and then scroll to the end.)
