This is a funky time of year for small organizations and businesses. From Halloween through the New Year, the pressure is on to capture and hold your audiences’ attention. There’s a rhythm we fall into over these next few weeks that feels “set,” but when your audiences are smaller or your business is new, some of those traditions and cycles might not feel right, or feel like they go unnoticed. 

If you’re not careful, your communications calendar can feel like a pile-up. Social media traffic will be off the charts. You’re wondering whether to participate in Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday—or, if you’re a non-profit—Giving Tuesday. And to bow out brings ambivalent questions about missing opportunities or the exhaustion that comes from creating brief, intense campaigns that may not get the attention you want. No matter which option you chose, the pressure to be seen and heard this time of year is huge. 

So what do you do with these noisy, chaotic two months? 

The question I keep asking clients lately is this: tell me three small things you want to accomplish by the end of the year. (It’s an arbitrary line to draw, but we tend to conform to it so it works as a natural breaking point.) Some people sigh with dread, others light up with the competitive challenge that comes with a time trial. There are some people who might say, “Well, we knew enough to plan ahead, so here’s the schedule!” But whatever you planned in the summer, or even last year, there’s always some way you can look it over and see if it could use an edit. The world is different now, even since September. News cycles are particularly demanding on our attention spans, and as always, cultural signposts are shifting in ways that may be relevant to your work. 

Before I go any further: this exercise is supposed to be fun. This is not a list of must-dos. This is a small expansion plan. If it’s freaking you out, back up and start over. One item on the list could be to go for more short walks to break up your day. Another could be to stop by a local business (or three) you’ve been curious about and introduce yourself. Or maybe you decide to reach out to three people who have helped you this year to thank them. Maybe one thing on the list is to use more green…somewhere. 

For the people I work with, one wants to put the finishing touches on the redesign of their website and brainstorm new audiences for their services next year; another wants to do some fundraising on Giving Tuesday for the first time and sketch out their events for spring and summer; and a third, a small gift shop, will dive into the season by offering private shopping sessions. Their social media and other communications might evolve week by week as they learn about what their customers are looking for or to celebrate their local community beyond the shop. I have another client whose needs through the end of 2023 are clear, but the list of new writing projects for 2024 is starting to take shape enough that I know that I’ll need to block off time for those. 

So look again at your current calendar, or take time to create a miniature plan. Whether you want to put something new (and relatively small) out into the world before the end of the year, or you want to play with new ideas and sketch out some goals to return to in January, spending even five minutes to identify a list of three items will give you some clarity and focus at a time when everything can feel both scattered and over-scheduled. 

And then? Write it down, no matter how unformed the list may feel. Use a pen (write slowly and practice your penmanship—the benefits extend beyond a list of new projects) and leave it in a place where you can come back to it when you have time (or when you’re fed up with the present moment), and let it evolve. Or let it remind you that while this path to December 31 may feel narrow and crowded, January brings a bit of quiet at first, and a sense of fresh possibilities.