Give Yourself a Restful “Clean Break” for the Holidays (and for the New Year too)

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Giving yourself the most restful and rewarding end to the year isn’t about checking off all your goals. It’s definitely not about creating new goals or visiting a hundred friends or colleagues. A restful and rewarding end of the year is about giving yourself what I call a “clean break” (whatever that means to you).

What is a “Clean Break” and How Can It Help You?

Every self-help book tells us we need to clean our desks at the end of the workday (which I agree with in theory, but in practice not so much). But it takes more than a tidy space to give ourselves a fresh start. We also need to cleanse our mental hangovers – that is, the open loops that weigh us down for one reason or another.

A clean break is purely psychological. It means completing or winding down whatever you are doing or working on and crossing that finish line. A clean break is also a practical tool for giving yourself a fresh start, which is the hallmark of the New Year. The good news is that where you draw that line is completely up to you.

What can you “finish” (or what stopping point can you reach) to give yourself a break so that you can come back with new energy, approaches, or perspectives in 2023?

Finishing the Year Strong Using Clean Breaks

In Dan Pink’s excellent book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, he explains that the New Year is what social scientists call a “temporal landmark.” Just as we rely on landmarks to navigate space, we use temporal landmarks to navigate time too. Pink refers to “The Fresh Start Effect,” a Wharton study on the science of timing (Dai, Milkman, and Riis) which showed that searches for the word “diet” on January 1st are up by 80% from a normal day.

Putting our cynicism about resolutions aside, there is power in new beginnings. The New Year gives us the focus and motivation to make improvements happen. But to make change possible, we need to clear the backlog of our old self.?

To finish the year strong – and give yourself a restful clean break to reset your mind, energy, and intentions– focus on the few things that you realistically want to wrap up.

Reflect on what is weighing you down at this endpoint of 2022 and what could help you feel lighter or more mentally detoxed. You may have a project you’d feel relieved to finish. You may have a few key people you need to follow up with. I personally have 3 work tasks that are giving me a psychological hangover of sorts. While they aren’t the hardest or most involved things I want to get done, they are the tasks I know I need to push myself on to give myself the restful holiday break I want.

Give yourself a clean break by finding the best stopping point possible, perhaps even the single next action you can take, so you can get things off your mind.?

As you plan out your last days of the year, think about:

• What are the few tasks or activities you can do to give yourself a “clean break” for the year??
• How can you get these tasks “good enough” to reach that finish line? What are the one or two steps you can take??
• What is your (ultra-realistic) plan for getting there by the end of the year?

Making Mini “Clean Breaks” Your New Markers for 2023 (and Beyond)

But what if you don’t need to wait until the next New Year to reap the benefits of a clean break? What about making mini clean breaks your new markers, beacons, or mantras throughout the year??

You can look for opportunities to get tasks and projects to “good enough” so that you can move on.?

It’s a bit like a Jedi mind trick, which I’ve learned to play on myself.?

Instead of obsessing about my unreasonably long to-do lists, I motivate myself by focusing on the next clear stopping point – a mini moment where I can mentally move on, while the project awaits its next step (mine or someone else’s).?

It’s akin to “celebrating”, but to be perfectly honest, the idea of “celebrating” every time you check off a to-do is a bit fromage to me. Clean breaks, on the other hand, resonate with me because they’re about moving forward and giving yourself a breather. (But you can still “celebrate” with a Starbucks, short walk, or cat video if you want.)

So, for 2023 and beyond:

• How can you create healthy cut-offs or stopping points without waiting for the next New Year?
• What are the strategic groups of tasks that will help you to get the best clean breaks?
• What are the most restful and rewarding things you can do during your breaks?

And as I pause until my first newsletter of 2023, I’m grateful for your interest in Leverage Your Knowledge and wish you a happy, healthy, and restful end to 2022 and all good things in the coming year.