158. Soft Landing, Smooth Takeoff: A Less Stressful Year-End Planning Process
Are you feeling overwhelmed by the year-end rush? As the holidays approach, the pressure to finish tasks, meet deadlines, and prepare for the new year can feel intense. But what if you could reduce the stress, stay on top of your business, and still enjoy the season?
In this episode, I’m walking you through a planning strategy to help you wrap up the year with clarity and confidence. I’ll share my approach to creating a "bridge plan" that transitions you smoothly from Q4 to Q1, helping you prioritize what needs to be done now and what can wait until January. This isn’t about pushing through until the end of the year or doing everything at once. It’s about making intentional decisions so you can close out 2025 feeling accomplished and enter 2026 with calm and control.
You’ll learn how to create a “soft landing, smooth takeoff,” avoiding that last-minute scramble and starting the new year refreshed. I’ll show you the exact process for reviewing your commitments, getting ruthless about what stays on your list, and creating a realistic plan that supports both your business and your well-being. This strategy will help you define what “enough” looks like for you so you can stop the mental spin and feel proactive instead of reactive.
If you've been thinking about working with me one-on-one, be sure to get on the private coaching waitlist! Click here to learn more about Design to Thrive and secure your spot to be the first to know when availability opens up.
What You’ll Discover from this Episode:
How to create a bridge plan that spans from Q4 through Q1 for seamless year-end transitions
The three key questions to evaluate every task.
How to identify and release arbitrary deadlines and expectations that create unnecessary pressure.
Practical ways to communicate your plan to clients, team members, and project partners.
The importance of putting time blocks on your calendar for both work tasks and holiday enjoyment.
Why deciding what's "enough" is crucial for reducing anxiety and ending the year feeling accomplished.
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Full Episode Transcript:
Hey designer, you're listening to episode 158. In this one, I'm sharing a planning strategy you can get started with today to reduce that year-end stress, while of course, still getting the work done. We're entering into the busy time of year, and this is a process I use myself and teach my clients so that the holidays and just the end-of-the-year to-dos don't crush your spirit.
The end-of-year pileup can feel like a lot because it can be a lot. And what I'm walking you through is going to help you manage it all with less pressure and more focus so that you get the essentials done now and start the new year feeling calm and in control of what's to come.
Welcome to The Interior Design Business CEO, the only show for designers who are ready to confidently run and grow their businesses without the stress and anxiety. If you're ready to develop a bigger vision for your interior design business, free up your time, and streamline your days for productivity and profit, you're in the right place.
I'm Desi Creswell, an award-winning interior designer and certified life and business coach. I help interior designers just like you stop feeling overwhelmed so they can build profitable businesses they love to run. Are you ready to confidently lead your business, clients, and projects? Let's go.
Hello designer, welcome back to the podcast. I'm glad to be here with you as always. It's kind of a cozy vibe today here in my office. I'm looking out the window, and there's a thin layer of ice over the lake behind us. I am drinking some tea, and I have a candle burning. It's actually a candle that Allison Hay sent me. She was on the podcast talking all about PR strategy. So if you want to listen to that one, I love it though. It's got a great scent, and even more fun, it has my name on it.
I always was looking, when I was a kid, and there was never the little license plate or the keychain with Desi on it. It was always Katie or Michelle or some other very common name. And here now I have a personalized thing. I like personalized things. I think it makes the little 8-year-old in me happy.
So that's what's happening here, just to set the tone. I wanted to bring this topic to you today about year-end planning and bridging into the next year because of some of the things I've been doing in my business that I think would be really helpful for you. I have had a really busy couple of weeks here, busier than I would have liked, both with some personal things that have come up that has required me to not be in my office doing things when I planned, and also getting ready to put out the launch for Create your 2026 Roadmap.
This is going to be my sixth annual goal-setting workshop, which is really fun. And I'm excited to offer that to you all. And I also have a lot of moving pieces that go into promoting an event and putting on a workshop like that.
So, anyways, it's been kind of a little bit busier than I'd like, and I've really started to feel sort of that low-level buzz of anxiety and stress. And it was really starting to build over the last half of the week and into the weekend.
And of course, I've been thinking too about how, wow, the end of the year is quickly approaching. And my brain's also thinking, oh gosh, the summer stuff is going to come out for camps. I'm going to have to start planning my kids' summer, you know, fairly soon.
Anyways, noticing just a little bit of resistance to sitting still, kind of having that feeling like I have to keep going, I have to keep moving, maybe planning a little bit less because I didn't want to face reality, or kind of avoiding some of the typical evaluations that I'm doing at the end of the week. And just there's no shame in that. It's just a sign when I notice that those things are coming up that I need to check in with myself and have a little reset.
And what I realized as I was doing this weekend is really that it was just right on time for this planning process that I'm going to share with you today. It's something that I typically do around this time of year, and for some reason, it just hadn't occurred to me, and then I thought, yeah, this is the time. And I thought I definitely should share this on the podcast because I know that many of you are feeling the same way.
And it's kind of funny because I had written out some notes over the weekend when I was thinking about how do I make this end-of-year plan and move into the next year feeling like I am capable and accomplished and proactive. And I was doing my one-on-one check-ins for my private coaching clients. There is a process that I have for them to get between-session support, and I went in for one of my clients this morning, and it was so funny because she had actually asked about this exact topic and needed some support. So I thought, okay, this is for sure happening. We are going to talk about this today.
And we're of course going to cover the mindset tools you need to lower the stress levels if you feel yourself really amping up in a time where there's a lot to do, but also you kind of want to be shifting gears and slowing down a little bit and enjoying the season. We're also going to talk about the simple planning and time management tools that you can use to feel in control going into the end of the year and also heading into 2026.
And one of the ways that I do this is creating a bridge plan that takes me from Q4 to Q1. And this is the way that I give myself, and you can give yourself so much clarity and so much peace as you wrap up the year, so that you're not wasting all of that mental energy on spinning or feeling overwhelmed.
I'm sure you've heard me, if you've been around the podcast at all, talking about how I do my annual goal setting and planning out the year in quarters. So I definitely do create quarterly plans, whether that is at the start of the year, the end of the year, or the middle of the year.
This is kind of like a bonus plan that bridges the gap between end of year and beginning of next year because I have found that it is most effective to do your quarterly one planning and setting the yearly goals in January after you've had some space to step away from the business over the holiday season and just get a little still, get some perspective with yourself and you'll start to see things so much more clearly as opposed to trying to plan out the next year from that frenetic, ‘I have to get this all done before the end of the year’ energy.
When you create this bridge plan, and I'm going to show you how to do that through this podcast, really what you do is get very clear and specific on what you need to get done so that you can feel accomplished because you've defined what is enough for now and enjoy this period of transition as we move from one year to the next.
Because like I said, I know this time of year can feel really hectic because you're wrapping up things in your business for year end, on the back end and with client projects, there's a lot of loose ends and open loops you probably want to close, and you also have that feeling of, gosh, I should really be thinking about goals for next year.
And then of course, there's everything that comes with the holidays, all the things we want to do or maybe feel obligated to do, and there's also just the reality of schedules shifting. If you have kids, they're probably off school for a while, maybe you're traveling to see family, and that can be a lot. So you might be feeling that stress and anxiety building up right now. So I want to normalize that for you. It's a thing, and I don't want you to have to grind out the rest of the year.
Not only is this highly unpleasant, you're just going to be so much less effective. When you're exhausted and feeling depleted, and also you're in that heightened emotional state, your levels of strategic thinking, your ability to be creative, to problem solve, it all suffers.
So if we can use planning as a supportive tool and framework for you to create the structure that is flexible enough to bend with you and the things that ebb and flow around this time, but also structured enough so that it can guide you and lead you without you having to constantly be making new decisions about what you're doing or not doing or have that hum in the background of never enough.
When I was thinking about this podcast and how I plan for the end of the year and beginning of next year, and I'm going to go into a little bit more of that too because it really is that Q4 to Q1 phase. The phrase "soft landing, smooth takeoff" came to mind. And I just loved that. It gave me such a beautiful visual of how I want to feel when I end the year and step into the new one.
If you've ever listened to episode 20, How to Take Time Off from Your Business, I talk about the concept of runway, which is essentially giving yourself time and space to come in and out of work when you take some vacation or extended leave for whatever reason.
And this soft landing, smooth takeoff is another airplane metaphor. It is the soft landing of avoiding working so hard and so beyond your capacity that you kind of screech into a complete halt, which makes it really difficult to be present during a time when you want to be enjoying yourself and being with family and friends. The soft landing is happening in your Q4.
And then we move into the smooth takeoff, which is quarter one, so January. And that's when really you're going to come back to work feeling energized instead of trying to feel like you've got to make up for lost time and that you're already behind.
Then, of course, this would be implied if you're landing and you're taking off, there was a time when you actually were on the runway and stopped and paused to give yourself that respite as we make the seasonal transition.
Let's talk about how you're going to create a doable plan for now and the near later term. So that's December and January. First of all, the very first thing you have to do is revisit your Q4 plan. If you don't have a quarterly plan, if this is not something that you currently do, that is okay. Just do a brain dump to get all of the things that are floating around in your head. Maybe it's even just tasks in your Asana that haven't really been updated, but they have been assigned to you. Get them all in one place so that you can start to review what is currently on your plate or what you're hoping to get done.
If you're not familiar with quarterly planning or you want to hear a little bit more about my perspective on why it is so amazing, you can check out episode 73. It's titled The Magic of a 90-Day Plan. And then also, I encourage you to join me for my goal-setting workshop, Create Your 2026 Roadmap. Details are going to be coming about that. Enrollment's opening December 1st, which is next week, but I'm going to teach you how to map out your entire year by quarter so that you're very focused and essentialist on what you're doing and not doing. But of course, that is a topic for another day and for that workshop.
So what you want to do is, again, take a look at that quarterly plan, what you thought you were going to get done, plan to get done. If you don't have that plan, then write down everything that you can think of. Get it out of your head and onto paper, whether that is actual paper or your computer screen. And I want you to be looking for the concrete to-dos and ideas that you had set out or have in mind. But I also want you to be scanning for any kind of background noise.
That could be things that you're telling yourself you should do or would like to do that you've never really committed to or decided you were going to do, but they're just sort of looping in the background. We want to pull those to the front too, so that we can make decisions about them and either decide to incorporate them into a plan or clear the decks.
This is all about what did you plan to have happened by the end of this year and assessing where do all of those things stand. I know for me, I needed to go through my project plan for this launch of the workshop and update some things, look at the timelines again. I also had to look at some of the things that I had wanted to do and still haven't done, and look at, are these still relevant? Are they essential? Do they have to be done now? Is it a must-do? Or would that just be a nice to do or a nice to have? Because those are two very different things.
This is also a good time to look at, did something new come up that was necessary to address, but really did impact your capacity or your ability to do other things that you had hoped to get to? And then of course, we have to consider this isn't just about your back end, it's also about your commitments to your current clients and your project deadlines.
So you're going to want to review all of those project processes and look at specifically what's going to be needed to get done now and what's later. What are those deadlines, and what are those milestones? When do those milestones need to happen? With all of this, make sure you're looking at it with a critical eye.
We'll talk about this in a little bit, but sometimes we set deadlines for ourselves that are arbitrary, that we haven't told anyone about. And of course, we want to work on follow-through, we want to be accountable. We don't want to procrastinate all the time, and sometimes we need to make an intentional choice that we picked a timeline that is no longer serving us, and we're proactively choosing a new timeline that serves us, and we like our reasons for why we're moving that.
Once you've got all those to-dos and want-to-dos and project deadlines all set out in front of you, you're also going to want to make sure you're checking expectations. This goes back to what I was just saying about our arbitrary deadlines, sometimes we set. You want to look for everything that isn't written down or isn't concrete. What are those expectations that you're holding for yourself?
I tend to work with a lot of high achievers, a lot of very accomplished women and designers in our field. And usually there's a little bit of perfectionism running in the background, too. So we want to look at, do the expectations that you have of yourself and what you can accomplish, do they feel supportive? Do they feel doable? Or do they feel like you are getting constricted and squeezed into a tiny little box and disciplining yourself in an overly strict way? There is a huge gap between those two, and we want to know the difference.
It's also a great time to just check in with yourself. What are those expectations that you think others are holding you to? It's especially important during this holiday season. Do we think that other people have super high expectations just because we do? Maybe not. Maybe it's true, but what are those things you're telling yourself? And if those expectations feel really heavy, what would happen if you questioned them? What would happen if you poked some holes in your own story and thought, yeah, what if the opposite is true? What if that is not true at all? And release a little bit of the mental weight.
All in all, this stage of the planning process is a great time to make the intangible tangible so that you're clear on not just those concrete things of, yes, I have to turn this in to the contractor at this date, but what are those things that are floating around in the background unnamed and possibly creating a lot of unnecessary pressure for yourself, whether that is because they're not actually necessary or because you're trying to use your brain as a giant post-it, which it's not designed to do, and you just need to get the actual to-do on paper so you can make a plan to do it and stop trying to keep track of it mentally.
Next, you're going to want to review these tasks and deliverables, and activities with fresh, discerning eyes. I want you to imagine that you've got this outside perspective where you're not so in it. And one of the ways you could do that is picture me in your office, and I'm going to review your list. What do you think I would say about that list, about what should or shouldn't be done, what's realistic? And see what comes up there.
You want to make sure, do you actually have the time and capacity for these things? So often, we are not allowing ourselves to take off time or be a little bit more flexible with the schedule because you want to go to the school program or you want to go do a fun little hot cocoa gathering with some friends, whatever it is. We don't let ourselves do that because we feel like we're so behind and there's so much to do, but we haven't fact-checked it. So take a look, what needs to be done, how much time is that all going to take? And is the capacity there? And of course, if it's not, something needs to be adjusted.
As you're evaluating your plans, remember this is through the end of the year and into January. Your aim is to make decisions about what you're doing and not doing. And you really want to be looking for what can I delete, what can I delegate, and what can I defer?
When I was looking back at my Q4 plan, one of the things that was on there was to get started back up on Instagram. I definitely had made some progress with planning that project, getting clear on how I want to use it, what it would be for. And also, I realized that trying to get that up and running in the way that I want to do it with the support that I want to have in doing it, is just not going to happen. So that is going to be a defer. There are other things, though, that I absolutely have to get done, and those are going to stay on my list. So we want to look at what stays, what goes, what needs to be adjusted.
This is a great time to remind you all that no plan is perfect. We do not make plans to follow them perfectly because no one can follow a plan perfectly because there are too many factors outside of our control, whether that's ourselves or others we're interfacing with in this world that we live in.
The reason we make a plan is to make intentional and proactive decisions instead of operating on default or in reactive mode. So this is a little tangent, but I want to normalize this reset moment for all of you. This is supposed to happen. We should be looking at our plans and adjusting as we go.
Once you have looked at your plan with this outside perspective and looked at what is realistic and what could I shift, what could I get help with, then you're going to start to create your plan and map out your approach. This really is at the heart of your soft landing and smooth takeoff.
And if you want to have a phrase that guides you, if you don't resonate with that phrase and you've got another one or you have a word or a saying that is going to set the tone for this period, definitely get creative and go for that. But what you're going to do is you are going to create your plan for now, whenever you're listening to this, through the end of January or at least the first two weeks of January.
The purpose of this is to clear up any ambiguity that is there. As I was saying before, the anxiety and stress really is coming from thinking on repeat, I've got too much to do, I don't have enough time, I'm overwhelmed, I'm behind, right? These narratives that really stir up the stress. And if we don't know what it means to get enough done by the holidays, now we need to make that clear because we need to know what we're measuring against, because if we tell ourselves, I need to get enough done, it will never be enough. So you have to decide what is enough for you based on your client commitments and how you want to approach your business.
The reason why you make your plan through January or at least mid-January is that so you can enter into any time off you have this December, knowing that you can take that space for yourself and enjoy it because you've already got you. This is where present you is setting future you up for success. You're using the planning to help create a sense of security for your brain. It's like a nice little shelf that you set all of this on, and you know exactly where you put it, and you're going to return to it at a set time.
Even if you don't completely complete something that you had intended to, you can create these little markers along the way so that you can have the sense of completeness, and then you know exactly where you're picking up when you return back to work in the new year.
In this phase of the planning, you're going to be getting very ruthless and deciding what you're doing and not doing. You're also going to look at when you're doing the things, and this is, of course, roughly, if you need to adjust, you can. But a big part of this is we want to know that we have the actual time.
To give you an example from my quarterly plan, I know that I need to have my podcast episodes through the end of the year in quite a bit early to my podcast team because of when they're taking vacation. So I went through and looked at what are the specific episodes that I have to get done, what are those topics going to be, and then put those prep periods and recording periods on my calendar so that I could see how it fits.
If I need to week by week go in and go, okay, well, actually, that would be better on this day. That's fine, but I know that I have the space secured for it, so that I know it will get done, and I can stop worrying about it getting done.
You're also going to want to look at who is doing these things. It might be you, but it might be someone else. And you can even get creative about delegating here. If you have a team, that's amazing. If you have contractors, maybe they can help a little bit more if you do feel like you need help to get through this a little bit of push. But you can also consider how can you get even more support in your personal life for some of the holiday errands or gift wrapping, or things like that come along with the season.
Once you've gone through and decided what you're doing, who's doing it, when it's getting done, and what exactly is getting done, and put that on your calendar and made that plan, you want to make sure to take the time to communicate to anyone who's going to be involved in making your plan happen or who will be on the receiving end of your plan.
So this is a good time to start setting expectations with your team, your clients, and your project partners and giving them plenty of advanced notice that you are going to be out of the office for whatever length of time, if there's certain things you need from them before you leave and not just like at 5 p.m. the day before you're planning on taking vacation, maybe days in advance, so that way you have time to respond and react to whatever they share. That's also a good tip.
But you want to be very clear on what it looks like for you to follow the plan and also for others to interact with what you've decided. As you're looking ahead on the calendar, putting the little puzzle together, make sure that you have some spaces for things that you're looking forward to on the calendar, and make a plan for what you want the holidays to look and feel like. Often, we're doing even more for others than usual this time of year. So we want to make sure that you are on the to-do list and that you've been accounted for as well, whether that's doing something just for yourself or it's something you want to go do with others.
I was talking to one of the moms at school, and she had this brilliant idea. I loved this. Now, she's in corporate, so she has a little bit less flexibility with how she structures her days and times off and that kind of thing. But she does a mom's winter break day. And all she does is she takes a PTO day the very first day after winter break ends. And that is her, quote-unquote, “winter break.” I love that idea. I mean, it's very much in line with my concept of runway of give yourself time to settle back into work. But I thought this was such a fun idea. So remember, you can do something like that.
The last thing that I want to share with this entire process is that you have to have the mindset of allowing your plan to be enough. Of course, you want to uphold your commitments to your clients as much as possible, and then you need to decide it is enough, because it is so common to have that looping thought narrative of it's never enough. And at some point, you have to decide it is.
At this point, if you're following along with this process that I'm giving you on the podcast, you've done the planning, you've checked the timelines, you're honoring the commitments that are aligned with your values and goals, and that is good enough. You're going to return to the business in January with a plan to ease into the year and know what you're going to do.
And then you're going to join me in Create your 2026 Roadmap, where we're going to do a thorough evaluation of the previous year to capture those lessons learned. You're going to set a specific financial goal that you've been working towards, prioritize your needle movers, and we'll map out your year by the quarter. So you know what you're doing and when.
But between this bridge plan that you're creating and then diving deep with me in Roadmap, you are going to have everything you need to set yourself up for an incredible 2026. And of course, with that workshop, you're going to have my support too to move past your sticking points, internal and external, because I know sometimes it can feel like I want to do it all, I want to do it all at once. And we'll definitely talk about that and narrowing down your focus so that you are moving forward with momentum and not getting stuck in sort of that scramble of doing a little of this and a little of that and all of the things.
Enrollment for Create Your 2026 Roadmap is going to open on December 1st. If you want to hold the dates on your calendar now, it's going to be January 9th, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Central, and then on the 16th, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Central.
And if you want to get the early bird pricing and first dibs on those spots, make sure you are signed up for Monday Mindset, which is my weekly newsletter. That's where the first announcements is going to go out. You can go to desicreswell.com/resources and you'll find the link to join Monday Mindset there. And then if you're already on the list, make sure that my emails are moved over into your primary tab so that you actually see them, and it doesn't get buried in all of the holiday promo emails.
All right. So I know I gave you kind of a big rundown here. It's quite simple, though. If you need to go back and listen to this again, you definitely can. Remember too that all of the transcripts for each episode are on my website. So if you want to go through and bullet point those action items for yourself and take it to a coffee shop and do this planning, you can do that as well.
Because let me tell you, when you take the time to create a solid plan spanning the end of the year into the first parts of next year, you are going to end the year feeling clear, accomplished, and purposeful so that you can enjoy the holidays while also making sure you're moving the business along. It's going to be there for us to pick back up on in Roadmap, and I promise you, you're going to feel so much more renewed from having had a break and have some great ideas for yourself that will emerge about what you want to create next year.
Take a pause right now and put some time on your calendar to create your version of a soft landing and smooth takeoff. And then plan to join me and create your 2026 Roadmap. I'm going to be back in two weeks, so that's December 10th, with a brand new episode, and make sure you're following the show because we are going to talk about a really important, but very much overlooked, essential to hitting your goals. And it doesn't have anything to do with planning, and it has everything to do with you as the CEO. Until then, I'm wishing you a beautiful week as always, and I'll talk to you soon.
Thanks for joining me for this week's episode of The Interior Design Business CEO. If you want more tips, tools and strategies visit DesiCreswell.com, where you’ll get immediate access to a variety of free resources to help you take what you learn on the podcast and put it into action. And if you love what you’re hearing, be sure to rate, review, and follow the show wherever you listen to podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. I’ll talk to you next week.
The end-of-year pileup can feel like a lot because it can be a lot. And what I'm walking you through is going to help you manage it all with less pressure and more focus so that you get the essentials done now and start the new year feeling calm and in control of what's to come.
Welcome to The Interior Design Business CEO, the only show for designers who are ready to confidently run and grow their businesses without the stress and anxiety. If you're ready to develop a bigger vision for your interior design business, free up your time, and streamline your days for productivity and profit, you're in the right place.
I'm Desi Creswell, an award-winning interior designer and certified life and business coach. I help interior designers just like you stop feeling overwhelmed so they can build profitable businesses they love to run. Are you ready to confidently lead your business, clients, and projects? Let's go.
Hello designer, welcome back to the podcast. I'm glad to be here with you as always. It's kind of a cozy vibe today here in my office. I'm looking out the window, and there's a thin layer of ice over the lake behind us. I am drinking some tea, and I have a candle burning. It's actually a candle that Allison Hay sent me. She was on the podcast talking all about PR strategy. So if you want to listen to that one, I love it though. It's got a great scent, and even more fun, it has my name on it.
I always was looking, when I was a kid, and there was never the little license plate or the keychain with Desi on it. It was always Katie or Michelle or some other very common name. And here now I have a personalized thing. I like personalized things. I think it makes the little 8-year-old in me happy.
So that's what's happening here, just to set the tone. I wanted to bring this topic to you today about year-end planning and bridging into the next year because of some of the things I've been doing in my business that I think would be really helpful for you. I have had a really busy couple of weeks here, busier than I would have liked, both with some personal things that have come up that has required me to not be in my office doing things when I planned, and also getting ready to put out the launch for Create your 2026 Roadmap.
This is going to be my sixth annual goal-setting workshop, which is really fun. And I'm excited to offer that to you all. And I also have a lot of moving pieces that go into promoting an event and putting on a workshop like that.
So, anyways, it's been kind of a little bit busier than I'd like, and I've really started to feel sort of that low-level buzz of anxiety and stress. And it was really starting to build over the last half of the week and into the weekend.
And of course, I've been thinking too about how, wow, the end of the year is quickly approaching. And my brain's also thinking, oh gosh, the summer stuff is going to come out for camps. I'm going to have to start planning my kids' summer, you know, fairly soon.
Anyways, noticing just a little bit of resistance to sitting still, kind of having that feeling like I have to keep going, I have to keep moving, maybe planning a little bit less because I didn't want to face reality, or kind of avoiding some of the typical evaluations that I'm doing at the end of the week. And just there's no shame in that. It's just a sign when I notice that those things are coming up that I need to check in with myself and have a little reset.
And what I realized as I was doing this weekend is really that it was just right on time for this planning process that I'm going to share with you today. It's something that I typically do around this time of year, and for some reason, it just hadn't occurred to me, and then I thought, yeah, this is the time. And I thought I definitely should share this on the podcast because I know that many of you are feeling the same way.
And it's kind of funny because I had written out some notes over the weekend when I was thinking about how do I make this end-of-year plan and move into the next year feeling like I am capable and accomplished and proactive. And I was doing my one-on-one check-ins for my private coaching clients. There is a process that I have for them to get between-session support, and I went in for one of my clients this morning, and it was so funny because she had actually asked about this exact topic and needed some support. So I thought, okay, this is for sure happening. We are going to talk about this today.
And we're of course going to cover the mindset tools you need to lower the stress levels if you feel yourself really amping up in a time where there's a lot to do, but also you kind of want to be shifting gears and slowing down a little bit and enjoying the season. We're also going to talk about the simple planning and time management tools that you can use to feel in control going into the end of the year and also heading into 2026.
And one of the ways that I do this is creating a bridge plan that takes me from Q4 to Q1. And this is the way that I give myself, and you can give yourself so much clarity and so much peace as you wrap up the year, so that you're not wasting all of that mental energy on spinning or feeling overwhelmed.
I'm sure you've heard me, if you've been around the podcast at all, talking about how I do my annual goal setting and planning out the year in quarters. So I definitely do create quarterly plans, whether that is at the start of the year, the end of the year, or the middle of the year.
This is kind of like a bonus plan that bridges the gap between end of year and beginning of next year because I have found that it is most effective to do your quarterly one planning and setting the yearly goals in January after you've had some space to step away from the business over the holiday season and just get a little still, get some perspective with yourself and you'll start to see things so much more clearly as opposed to trying to plan out the next year from that frenetic, ‘I have to get this all done before the end of the year’ energy.
When you create this bridge plan, and I'm going to show you how to do that through this podcast, really what you do is get very clear and specific on what you need to get done so that you can feel accomplished because you've defined what is enough for now and enjoy this period of transition as we move from one year to the next.
Because like I said, I know this time of year can feel really hectic because you're wrapping up things in your business for year end, on the back end and with client projects, there's a lot of loose ends and open loops you probably want to close, and you also have that feeling of, gosh, I should really be thinking about goals for next year.
And then of course, there's everything that comes with the holidays, all the things we want to do or maybe feel obligated to do, and there's also just the reality of schedules shifting. If you have kids, they're probably off school for a while, maybe you're traveling to see family, and that can be a lot. So you might be feeling that stress and anxiety building up right now. So I want to normalize that for you. It's a thing, and I don't want you to have to grind out the rest of the year.
Not only is this highly unpleasant, you're just going to be so much less effective. When you're exhausted and feeling depleted, and also you're in that heightened emotional state, your levels of strategic thinking, your ability to be creative, to problem solve, it all suffers.
So if we can use planning as a supportive tool and framework for you to create the structure that is flexible enough to bend with you and the things that ebb and flow around this time, but also structured enough so that it can guide you and lead you without you having to constantly be making new decisions about what you're doing or not doing or have that hum in the background of never enough.
When I was thinking about this podcast and how I plan for the end of the year and beginning of next year, and I'm going to go into a little bit more of that too because it really is that Q4 to Q1 phase. The phrase "soft landing, smooth takeoff" came to mind. And I just loved that. It gave me such a beautiful visual of how I want to feel when I end the year and step into the new one.
If you've ever listened to episode 20, How to Take Time Off from Your Business, I talk about the concept of runway, which is essentially giving yourself time and space to come in and out of work when you take some vacation or extended leave for whatever reason.
And this soft landing, smooth takeoff is another airplane metaphor. It is the soft landing of avoiding working so hard and so beyond your capacity that you kind of screech into a complete halt, which makes it really difficult to be present during a time when you want to be enjoying yourself and being with family and friends. The soft landing is happening in your Q4.
And then we move into the smooth takeoff, which is quarter one, so January. And that's when really you're going to come back to work feeling energized instead of trying to feel like you've got to make up for lost time and that you're already behind.
Then, of course, this would be implied if you're landing and you're taking off, there was a time when you actually were on the runway and stopped and paused to give yourself that respite as we make the seasonal transition.
Let's talk about how you're going to create a doable plan for now and the near later term. So that's December and January. First of all, the very first thing you have to do is revisit your Q4 plan. If you don't have a quarterly plan, if this is not something that you currently do, that is okay. Just do a brain dump to get all of the things that are floating around in your head. Maybe it's even just tasks in your Asana that haven't really been updated, but they have been assigned to you. Get them all in one place so that you can start to review what is currently on your plate or what you're hoping to get done.
If you're not familiar with quarterly planning or you want to hear a little bit more about my perspective on why it is so amazing, you can check out episode 73. It's titled The Magic of a 90-Day Plan. And then also, I encourage you to join me for my goal-setting workshop, Create Your 2026 Roadmap. Details are going to be coming about that. Enrollment's opening December 1st, which is next week, but I'm going to teach you how to map out your entire year by quarter so that you're very focused and essentialist on what you're doing and not doing. But of course, that is a topic for another day and for that workshop.
So what you want to do is, again, take a look at that quarterly plan, what you thought you were going to get done, plan to get done. If you don't have that plan, then write down everything that you can think of. Get it out of your head and onto paper, whether that is actual paper or your computer screen. And I want you to be looking for the concrete to-dos and ideas that you had set out or have in mind. But I also want you to be scanning for any kind of background noise.
That could be things that you're telling yourself you should do or would like to do that you've never really committed to or decided you were going to do, but they're just sort of looping in the background. We want to pull those to the front too, so that we can make decisions about them and either decide to incorporate them into a plan or clear the decks.
This is all about what did you plan to have happened by the end of this year and assessing where do all of those things stand. I know for me, I needed to go through my project plan for this launch of the workshop and update some things, look at the timelines again. I also had to look at some of the things that I had wanted to do and still haven't done, and look at, are these still relevant? Are they essential? Do they have to be done now? Is it a must-do? Or would that just be a nice to do or a nice to have? Because those are two very different things.
This is also a good time to look at, did something new come up that was necessary to address, but really did impact your capacity or your ability to do other things that you had hoped to get to? And then of course, we have to consider this isn't just about your back end, it's also about your commitments to your current clients and your project deadlines.
So you're going to want to review all of those project processes and look at specifically what's going to be needed to get done now and what's later. What are those deadlines, and what are those milestones? When do those milestones need to happen? With all of this, make sure you're looking at it with a critical eye.
We'll talk about this in a little bit, but sometimes we set deadlines for ourselves that are arbitrary, that we haven't told anyone about. And of course, we want to work on follow-through, we want to be accountable. We don't want to procrastinate all the time, and sometimes we need to make an intentional choice that we picked a timeline that is no longer serving us, and we're proactively choosing a new timeline that serves us, and we like our reasons for why we're moving that.
Once you've got all those to-dos and want-to-dos and project deadlines all set out in front of you, you're also going to want to make sure you're checking expectations. This goes back to what I was just saying about our arbitrary deadlines, sometimes we set. You want to look for everything that isn't written down or isn't concrete. What are those expectations that you're holding for yourself?
I tend to work with a lot of high achievers, a lot of very accomplished women and designers in our field. And usually there's a little bit of perfectionism running in the background, too. So we want to look at, do the expectations that you have of yourself and what you can accomplish, do they feel supportive? Do they feel doable? Or do they feel like you are getting constricted and squeezed into a tiny little box and disciplining yourself in an overly strict way? There is a huge gap between those two, and we want to know the difference.
It's also a great time to just check in with yourself. What are those expectations that you think others are holding you to? It's especially important during this holiday season. Do we think that other people have super high expectations just because we do? Maybe not. Maybe it's true, but what are those things you're telling yourself? And if those expectations feel really heavy, what would happen if you questioned them? What would happen if you poked some holes in your own story and thought, yeah, what if the opposite is true? What if that is not true at all? And release a little bit of the mental weight.
All in all, this stage of the planning process is a great time to make the intangible tangible so that you're clear on not just those concrete things of, yes, I have to turn this in to the contractor at this date, but what are those things that are floating around in the background unnamed and possibly creating a lot of unnecessary pressure for yourself, whether that is because they're not actually necessary or because you're trying to use your brain as a giant post-it, which it's not designed to do, and you just need to get the actual to-do on paper so you can make a plan to do it and stop trying to keep track of it mentally.
Next, you're going to want to review these tasks and deliverables, and activities with fresh, discerning eyes. I want you to imagine that you've got this outside perspective where you're not so in it. And one of the ways you could do that is picture me in your office, and I'm going to review your list. What do you think I would say about that list, about what should or shouldn't be done, what's realistic? And see what comes up there.
You want to make sure, do you actually have the time and capacity for these things? So often, we are not allowing ourselves to take off time or be a little bit more flexible with the schedule because you want to go to the school program or you want to go do a fun little hot cocoa gathering with some friends, whatever it is. We don't let ourselves do that because we feel like we're so behind and there's so much to do, but we haven't fact-checked it. So take a look, what needs to be done, how much time is that all going to take? And is the capacity there? And of course, if it's not, something needs to be adjusted.
As you're evaluating your plans, remember this is through the end of the year and into January. Your aim is to make decisions about what you're doing and not doing. And you really want to be looking for what can I delete, what can I delegate, and what can I defer?
When I was looking back at my Q4 plan, one of the things that was on there was to get started back up on Instagram. I definitely had made some progress with planning that project, getting clear on how I want to use it, what it would be for. And also, I realized that trying to get that up and running in the way that I want to do it with the support that I want to have in doing it, is just not going to happen. So that is going to be a defer. There are other things, though, that I absolutely have to get done, and those are going to stay on my list. So we want to look at what stays, what goes, what needs to be adjusted.
This is a great time to remind you all that no plan is perfect. We do not make plans to follow them perfectly because no one can follow a plan perfectly because there are too many factors outside of our control, whether that's ourselves or others we're interfacing with in this world that we live in.
The reason we make a plan is to make intentional and proactive decisions instead of operating on default or in reactive mode. So this is a little tangent, but I want to normalize this reset moment for all of you. This is supposed to happen. We should be looking at our plans and adjusting as we go.
Once you have looked at your plan with this outside perspective and looked at what is realistic and what could I shift, what could I get help with, then you're going to start to create your plan and map out your approach. This really is at the heart of your soft landing and smooth takeoff.
And if you want to have a phrase that guides you, if you don't resonate with that phrase and you've got another one or you have a word or a saying that is going to set the tone for this period, definitely get creative and go for that. But what you're going to do is you are going to create your plan for now, whenever you're listening to this, through the end of January or at least the first two weeks of January.
The purpose of this is to clear up any ambiguity that is there. As I was saying before, the anxiety and stress really is coming from thinking on repeat, I've got too much to do, I don't have enough time, I'm overwhelmed, I'm behind, right? These narratives that really stir up the stress. And if we don't know what it means to get enough done by the holidays, now we need to make that clear because we need to know what we're measuring against, because if we tell ourselves, I need to get enough done, it will never be enough. So you have to decide what is enough for you based on your client commitments and how you want to approach your business.
The reason why you make your plan through January or at least mid-January is that so you can enter into any time off you have this December, knowing that you can take that space for yourself and enjoy it because you've already got you. This is where present you is setting future you up for success. You're using the planning to help create a sense of security for your brain. It's like a nice little shelf that you set all of this on, and you know exactly where you put it, and you're going to return to it at a set time.
Even if you don't completely complete something that you had intended to, you can create these little markers along the way so that you can have the sense of completeness, and then you know exactly where you're picking up when you return back to work in the new year.
In this phase of the planning, you're going to be getting very ruthless and deciding what you're doing and not doing. You're also going to look at when you're doing the things, and this is, of course, roughly, if you need to adjust, you can. But a big part of this is we want to know that we have the actual time.
To give you an example from my quarterly plan, I know that I need to have my podcast episodes through the end of the year in quite a bit early to my podcast team because of when they're taking vacation. So I went through and looked at what are the specific episodes that I have to get done, what are those topics going to be, and then put those prep periods and recording periods on my calendar so that I could see how it fits.
If I need to week by week go in and go, okay, well, actually, that would be better on this day. That's fine, but I know that I have the space secured for it, so that I know it will get done, and I can stop worrying about it getting done.
You're also going to want to look at who is doing these things. It might be you, but it might be someone else. And you can even get creative about delegating here. If you have a team, that's amazing. If you have contractors, maybe they can help a little bit more if you do feel like you need help to get through this a little bit of push. But you can also consider how can you get even more support in your personal life for some of the holiday errands or gift wrapping, or things like that come along with the season.
Once you've gone through and decided what you're doing, who's doing it, when it's getting done, and what exactly is getting done, and put that on your calendar and made that plan, you want to make sure to take the time to communicate to anyone who's going to be involved in making your plan happen or who will be on the receiving end of your plan.
So this is a good time to start setting expectations with your team, your clients, and your project partners and giving them plenty of advanced notice that you are going to be out of the office for whatever length of time, if there's certain things you need from them before you leave and not just like at 5 p.m. the day before you're planning on taking vacation, maybe days in advance, so that way you have time to respond and react to whatever they share. That's also a good tip.
But you want to be very clear on what it looks like for you to follow the plan and also for others to interact with what you've decided. As you're looking ahead on the calendar, putting the little puzzle together, make sure that you have some spaces for things that you're looking forward to on the calendar, and make a plan for what you want the holidays to look and feel like. Often, we're doing even more for others than usual this time of year. So we want to make sure that you are on the to-do list and that you've been accounted for as well, whether that's doing something just for yourself or it's something you want to go do with others.
I was talking to one of the moms at school, and she had this brilliant idea. I loved this. Now, she's in corporate, so she has a little bit less flexibility with how she structures her days and times off and that kind of thing. But she does a mom's winter break day. And all she does is she takes a PTO day the very first day after winter break ends. And that is her, quote-unquote, “winter break.” I love that idea. I mean, it's very much in line with my concept of runway of give yourself time to settle back into work. But I thought this was such a fun idea. So remember, you can do something like that.
The last thing that I want to share with this entire process is that you have to have the mindset of allowing your plan to be enough. Of course, you want to uphold your commitments to your clients as much as possible, and then you need to decide it is enough, because it is so common to have that looping thought narrative of it's never enough. And at some point, you have to decide it is.
At this point, if you're following along with this process that I'm giving you on the podcast, you've done the planning, you've checked the timelines, you're honoring the commitments that are aligned with your values and goals, and that is good enough. You're going to return to the business in January with a plan to ease into the year and know what you're going to do.
And then you're going to join me in Create your 2026 Roadmap, where we're going to do a thorough evaluation of the previous year to capture those lessons learned. You're going to set a specific financial goal that you've been working towards, prioritize your needle movers, and we'll map out your year by the quarter. So you know what you're doing and when.
But between this bridge plan that you're creating and then diving deep with me in Roadmap, you are going to have everything you need to set yourself up for an incredible 2026. And of course, with that workshop, you're going to have my support too to move past your sticking points, internal and external, because I know sometimes it can feel like I want to do it all, I want to do it all at once. And we'll definitely talk about that and narrowing down your focus so that you are moving forward with momentum and not getting stuck in sort of that scramble of doing a little of this and a little of that and all of the things.
Enrollment for Create Your 2026 Roadmap is going to open on December 1st. If you want to hold the dates on your calendar now, it's going to be January 9th, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Central, and then on the 16th, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Central.
And if you want to get the early bird pricing and first dibs on those spots, make sure you are signed up for Monday Mindset, which is my weekly newsletter. That's where the first announcements is going to go out. You can go to desicreswell.com/resources and you'll find the link to join Monday Mindset there. And then if you're already on the list, make sure that my emails are moved over into your primary tab so that you actually see them, and it doesn't get buried in all of the holiday promo emails.
All right. So I know I gave you kind of a big rundown here. It's quite simple, though. If you need to go back and listen to this again, you definitely can. Remember too that all of the transcripts for each episode are on my website. So if you want to go through and bullet point those action items for yourself and take it to a coffee shop and do this planning, you can do that as well.
Because let me tell you, when you take the time to create a solid plan spanning the end of the year into the first parts of next year, you are going to end the year feeling clear, accomplished, and purposeful so that you can enjoy the holidays while also making sure you're moving the business along. It's going to be there for us to pick back up on in Roadmap, and I promise you, you're going to feel so much more renewed from having had a break and have some great ideas for yourself that will emerge about what you want to create next year.
Take a pause right now and put some time on your calendar to create your version of a soft landing and smooth takeoff. And then plan to join me and create your 2026 Roadmap. I'm going to be back in two weeks, so that's December 10th, with a brand new episode, and make sure you're following the show because we are going to talk about a really important, but very much overlooked, essential to hitting your goals. And it doesn't have anything to do with planning, and it has everything to do with you as the CEO. Until then, I'm wishing you a beautiful week as always, and I'll talk to you soon.
Thanks for joining me for this week's episode of The Interior Design Business CEO. If you want more tips, tools and strategies visit DesiCreswell.com, where you’ll get immediate access to a variety of free resources to help you take what you learn on the podcast and put it into action. And if you love what you’re hearing, be sure to rate, review, and follow the show wherever you listen to podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. I’ll talk to you next week.
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