10 ways to have a Joyful January
January is special.
You can get up a little later, swim in the ocean every day, and spend guilt-free hours reclining on couches with a good book.
If you find yourself at work, everything is easier, calmer, more serene. It feels more like a pleasure-cruise than a tread-mill.
But I didn’t know where the name ‘January’ comes from: The Roman God Janus. He’s appropriately known as the God of “Beginnings and Endings,” as well as having a less-known role as the God of “Transitions, Gates & Doorways”.
Janus is even depicted with two faces – one looking forwards to the new year and one looking back to the old.
Source: Wikimedia commons
Much as I love January, it’s also easy to waste; to while away the weeks starting work a little late, finishing a little early and checking the cricket scores a little too often during the day.
You’re not getting the benefits of being truly on holiday, but you’re also not really doing your best work either. You’re stuck in no-man’s land.
Then February comes all-too-soon, you fire the starter’s pistol and charge the barricades for the next 10-and-a-half months.
So here are some ideas I’m experimenting with to maximize the play, and make a little quiet progress on work, this January….
Look back. Make sure you do a decent review of 2025. Capture what you learnt personally and professionally, and make sure you apply your learnings to 2026 in specific, concrete and immediate ways.
Create leverage. Ask: what’s the one thing you could do in January which will make the rest of your year easier and more successful?
Make a decision. What’s the biggest, bravest decision that you should make now instead of delay?
Plan your holidays. Taking a leaf from the ‘Life by Design’ work of Digby Scott and others, work out what really matters to you this year – meaningful events, time with family, catching up with friends – and lock it in the diary.
Build relationships. Say thank you to someone who make a difference to you in 2025. Build connections and networks. Make the effort with people who you will work alongside this year.
Make some quiet strategic progress. Last year I discovered the special power of chunking business strategy into 6 week ‘sprints’. While I’m not advising you to turn January into a sprint, I am taking my own advice and being clear what I want to achieve by the end of February. I’m calling this ‘quiet strategic progress’.
Reward yourself with a long weekend end of January. If you haven’t done this yet, lock in a long weekend at end of January so you can keep a little more of the summer feeling.
Solve a problem. What’s one problem or obstacle you’re going to face this year, and can you spend some quality time in January on defining, brainstorming – and solving it?
Learn something. Can you try something new, read something, take a course in January? Can you dive into AI and experiment with it as a thinking partner?
Try a new habit. I’m a bit obsessed with making progress through ‘tiny habits’. In 2025, my winning new habits included starting my day by asking, “what’s the biggest thing I could do today to make progress on my strategy?’ What new habit could you try? One powerful place to look is how you start and end your workday…or what you can do instead of reaching for your smartphone this year.
