Hey Reader,

It’s been a crazy month. The kids officially were off from school until January 6th. I took off the entire Christmas break with them.

That got extended to January 7th, plus a 2-hour delay on the 8th, because of snow…and from what I heard, we got off easy.

So my first full week of work back was actually three and a half days. Then I traveled to Orlando for 6 days for Podfest and to see my brother.

I came home to a house where everyone had the flu and RSV. As I write this, I’m feeling it a little. Though a combination of Tamiflu, vitamin C, and masking in the living room amid a chorus of coughing has prevented the worst of it.

This week is dedicated to my next LinkedIn Learning course, and it’s a big one.

Plus, we got a puppy on Christmas. We’re potty training both it, and my daughter. And there were some major school events this month too.

As a result, I had no margin in January to do the things I normally like to do in January:

• Reflect
• Plan
• Build up a stock of content
• Try new things

So I’ve decided my 2025 is actually starting in February.

There are two important notes here:

First, a couple of years ago, a month like this would have sent me into a spiral of stress and anxiety. But aside from a few experiments getting delayed, nothing else stopped.

My podcast still published on its normal schedule. Leads kept coming in and proposals kept going out.

And I still did my most crucial work.

It’s a testament to the systems and process I’ve put in place, and I want to improve them even more this year.

Second, the calendar is arbitrary. I like doing things in late December and early January because it’s naturally slower than basically the rest of the year.

But it wasn’t slow for me this year; so I’m bumping my January tasks to February. The nice thing is my systems have proved that they can provide a ton of margin for changes like this.

So, now, I want to ask you: what’s one thing you didn’t get to do in January? And how much margin do your systems support?

Reply to this email and let me know!