Don’t Arrive at December on Fumes.

“I just need to get through the next few weeks.”

Perhaps you’ve said this recently. Or thought it while accepting another meeting, agreeing to one more deadline, or moving your walk out of the calendar to make room.

The promise is reassuring: once things settle down, you’ll rest.

But the finish line keeps moving. One project ends, another request arrives. Work deadlines compete with school commitments, year-end functions and the personal admin you were hoping to catch up on.

December begins to carry a lot of expectation. It’s going to be the month when you recover, reconnect, switch off and somehow feel like yourself again.

What if you didn’t wait until the break to start protecting your energy?

There is still time to change how you experience the weeks ahead. It starts with noticing where your energy goes—and what helps you replenish it.

What is costing you more than it needs to?

Some demands are unavoidable. You may have a genuinely full workload, people depending on you and commitments that matter.

An energy audit won’t make all of that disappear.

But alongside those demands, quieter drains may exist: the conversation you keep rehearsing but haven’t had. The task you took back because explaining it felt too slow. The small irritation you encounter every day. The effort to improve something that already meets the requirement.

Each seems manageable on its own. Together, they leave you with less capacity for the things you actually want to give yourself to.

You don’t need an elaborate spreadsheet to investigate. Give yourself fifteen quiet minutes and consider these questions.

1. What restores me—and what keeps getting cancelled?

Think about the activities that leave you feeling more like yourself.

A morning walk. A conversation with someone who helps you think clearly. Reading. Prayer. Movement. Making something with your hands. A few minutes without anyone needing anything from you.

Now look at which of these disappear first when life gets busy.

We often remove the very things that help us cope with the demands we’re keeping.

Choose one source of renewal and protect a realistic version of it this week. Perhaps your usual hour becomes twenty minutes. Perhaps you walk around the block instead of abandoning movement altogether.

Shrink the habit before you let it disappear.

2. What am I tolerating?

An unclear agreement. A recurring meeting without a useful purpose. A cluttered workspace. A process that creates unnecessary rework. A conversation you leave feeling resentful because you agreed to something you didn’t have capacity for.

What keeps bothering you, even when you’re supposedly doing something else?

Choose one toleration you can address.

Have the conversation. Clarify the responsibility. Fix the recurring irritation. Ask whether the meeting still needs to happen.

The aim is to remove something that keeps charging you for your attention.

3. What am I carrying that belongs to someone else?

Notice where you step in automatically.

Do you volunteer before anyone has asked? Take work back when someone approaches it differently? Remain the point of contact for something you have already delegated?

Being capable can become an exhausting identity when it means you must always be available to rescue, solve or oversee.

Ask yourself:

Am I contributing something necessary here, or am I struggling to let someone else own it?

If you delegate, make the handover clear: the outcome, the standard, the deadline and when to check in.

Then notice the urge to hover. Supporting someone doesn't mean you have to carry the task alongside them.

4. Where is my attention making the work harder?

When there is a lot to finish, it’s tempting to keep everything in motion.

You begin the proposal, check an email, respond to a message and remember something you need to organise at home. By the time you return to the proposal, you have to find your place again.

You’ve been busy for an hour, but the work that needed your attention has barely moved.

Notice when you concentrate best. Where possible, give your most demanding work a place in that part of your day.

Choose a specific outcome for that time: draft the recommendation, review the budget or prepare the conversation. Close what you don’t need and give yourself a chance to stay with it.

Your audit may reveal that some of your energy is going into repeatedly restarting.

5. What am I still working on in my head?

Sometimes the task has stopped, but you haven’t.

You replay the meeting while driving. Rehearse tomorrow’s conversation during dinner. Remember an unanswered email just as you sit down to rest.

Try giving unfinished work a clear next step before you close your day.

Write down what remains open, the next action and when you will return to it.

“Finish proposal” is a large, unresolved demand. “Draft the workshop outcomes at 9am on Tuesday” gives you a place to start.

This also helps you see what needs a decision, a contribution from someone else or protected time in your calendar.

You can return to the work with a plan, rather than spending the evening trying to remember it all.

6. What am I taking into the next room?

A difficult conversation can follow you into the next meeting. A frustrating day can arrive home before you’ve said hello.

The people around you experience the state you bring into your time together.

Before moving into your next activity, take a brief pause where possible. Stand up. Get some water. Step outside. Write down what needs follow-up. Or even spend an extra ten minutes in the car before you go inside.

Then ask:

What am I carrying, and how do I want to show up now?

You don’t have to manufacture a cheerful mood. You can acknowledge that you’re frustrated or tired and choose how to respond from there.

That small pause gives you an opportunity to arrive with more intention.

What do you need to start, stop or continue?

An energy audit becomes useful when you act on what you notice.

For me, it was noticing that journalling had quietly disappeared from my morning. Things got busy, and the first thing to go was something that helps me navigate busy days.

I now make a conscious effort to make it my first activity. It clears my head, gives me perspective and helps me get out of my own way.

The work doesn’t disappear. The responsibilities are still there. But I approach them with more bandwidth, focus and clarity.

That is the value of this audit: understanding what helps you meet your commitments and what is quietly making them harder.

As you look at the weeks ahead, ask yourself:

• What do I need to start? A brief pause between meetings? A conversation about priorities? Writing down tomorrow’s next steps before closing my laptop?

• What do I need to stop? Checking messages during focused work? Taking back tasks I’ve delegated? Revisiting work that already meets the requirement?

• What do I need to continue—or return to? The journalling, movement, prayer or quiet time that helps me feel grounded and think clearly?

Choose one change and give it a place in your day. Notice whether it helps you concentrate, follow through or have more patience with the people around you.

You want to finish the year strong. You have work you care about and commitments you want to honour.

Protecting your energy is part of the way there.

Start now, while there is still time for those small choices to change how you experience the weeks ahead—and how you feel when the December break arrives.

Warm wishes,

Lori