January is Sunday
Welcome to a brand new year!
January tends to be full of two extremes: calls for resolutions and Big Plans or a complete rejection of all planning and goal setting.
But what if there is something softer, right there in the middle?
A few years ago, I read somewhere (I suspect it was in Anna Brones's Creative Fuel newsletter, but I couldn't find it when I briefly hunted) a line that entirely changed the way I approach January:
January is Sunday, not Monday.
I love this so much.
It speaks so beautifully to that middle ground between "hitting the ground running" and doing nothing at all.
Here's how I think about it—
Imagine November through February like days of the week:
November is Friday. You know how Fridays begin with a frantic sort of "oh shit" mad scramble to finish the things we meant to do that week, but also how that mad scramble competes with a kind of short-timers that means we're also leaving anything that can wait until Monday alone? That's November. Over the course of the month, we're increasingly looking at the holiday season/end of the year and for ways to bump unfinished work into the next year when we'll be 'fresh.' By the end of November, we're often just "running out the clock"— we may be physically still there, but mentally, we've mostly checked out.
December is Saturday. Sure, maybe on Saturday morning, we check our email in bed or throw in a load of laundry that ends up getting left languishing in the washer overnight, but really, we're thinking about the afternoon BBQ and then dinner with friends and maybe meeting for late night cocktails at that new place that just opened. December tends to be social and over-stimulated and crammed with a few too many things going on. We're celebrating and having fun, and also, there's a little thread of exhaustion running underneath the gaiety.
January is Sunday. So here we are— January as Sunday. Sunday mornings are for sleeping in, lingering over delicious dreams, going to restorative yoga before meeting friends for a low-key brunch. But by afternoon, it's finishing up the laundry and cleaning the bathroom, making the meal plan for the week and hitting up the grocery store, prepping lunches and checking the calendar to recall what obligations are on the docket, before settling in for a quiet night and an early bedtime. January is quiet, restorative, and for beginning the groundwork that will make the rest of the year sustainable.
February is Monday. A great Monday tends to be a mix of connecting to and prioritizing our dashboards, clarifying our goals for the week ahead, and then starting off on the right foot by diving into the top priority work. There's energy and promise, and the first steps toward execution. February is all about the freight train pulling out of the station— beginning with slow forward motion and steadily picking up the momentum that will carry us on.
Look. I know that this seems a little silly and all of us have different sorts of rhythms that work for our weeks and years. But I'm going to trust you get the gist of what I'm trying to say here:
Consider shifting toward seeing January as the month to set yourself up well for the year ahead instead of the month to dive headfirst into making things happen.
So what does this have to do with writing my book?
Every year, the first week of January tends to be full of folks telling me their Big Plans for their books this year.
Generally speaking, I love this— choosing our books as a clear priority for the year ahead is the first step in carving out the time and energy needed to bring them to life. Understanding where you're trying to take your book in the coming year is how you begin to work backward and figure out what's required to get you there.
The problem is that more often, the Big Plans I hear about tend to center around goals like "I'm going to write 1000 words a day until the draft is done."
Again, I love this if what is really meant by it is that the writer plans to push their book up their priority list and into a place where they can realistically envision spending several hours on it most days.
But what about when that's not realistic? Or a day gets missed? Or the work calls for connecting with the spine of the story instead of plowing forward?
Also, what has changed to make this goal possible NOW? How has the writer prepared themselves and their lives to make this space consistently possible?
When we don't consider these questions, it can be easy to feel disheartened and frustrated when we can't sustain the pace or practices we set forth for ourselves.
Rather than January being a time for immediately executing ambitious daily practices and goals that require rigid discipline, treating January as "Sunday" allows a writer to look at their writing practices and goals as a whole and figure out what "prep" they might need in order to move forward steadily and sustainably.
Sometimes that's taking a little time to rest and recover from a particularly exhausting December or taking care of some of the "life" stuff that got neglected over the holiday season. Or going back to the planning in order to reconnect with the core of the story. Or doing some brainstorming work for the next section. And, of course, sometimes it's following the fresh energy of a new year and drafting forward.
To be clear— these are not mutually exclusive and I am always thrilled when a writer is writing forward. But moving forward doesn't always look like writing forward.
"January as Sunday" is all about discernment.
What do you need in order to set yourself up for a successful writing year ahead?
Taking a beat in January to evaluate that for yourself with honesty and self-awareness, and offering yourself the gift of a sustainable and steady writing practice is often a far more fruitful path forward than arbitrary word count goals or "finish by" dates.
If you'd like a hand figuring out what this looks like for you, don't be shy about reaching out. Book a call and let's talk about your goals and how to best set yourself up to meet them this year.
You don't have to figure it all out on your own.
