The Last Push of the Year (and Why It Can Feel Like a Pull)

October has a sound, and in my inbox it’s the phrase “before Christmas”. Can we get this signed off before Christmas. Can we fit one more campaign in before Christmas. Can we launch before Christmas. It’s the first full week of October as I write this and I’ve heard it more than once already.

There’s a quarter of the year still to run. About twelve weeks. And yet somewhere around the clocks going back, most of us start behaving as though the year ends on a cliff edge and everything has to be carried over it by hand.

Why the year end panic happens and what to do if you’re in it is something that we are going to get into. If I am feeling it, I know somebody else out there is too. Then I want to feed you with great nutrition, because I think the two are connected.

October is a transition, and transitions are tiring

September gets all the attention. New term energy, a fresh notebook, the reset. October is what comes afterwards, when the plans you made in that notebook meet an actual diary.

The daylight drops. The mornings are dark again and on the 25th  of October the clocks go back in the UK. The heating goes on and you resent it a little. Your body is adjusting to all of this while your calendar is asking for more, and the more is the part we rarely budget for. A change of season costs energy even when nothing is going wrong and even when its all going right.

So if you’re more tired than your workload seems to justify, you may simply be changing gear. I find that a kinder explanation than the one most women reach for first, which is that they must be doing something wrong.

When the push turns into a pull

A push is something you choose. You look at the weeks you have, decide what matters, and lean in. It’s tiring in the way a long walk is tiring.

A pull feels different in the brain and body. The year starts dragging you along behind it, and what’s doing the dragging is mostly other people’s needs and dates. Q4 targets, the school calendar, the client who has just remembered their budget runs out in December, the social plans that appear from nowhere in November. You’re moving just as fast as you would in a push, sometimes faster, but you didn’t pick the direction. One client described it to me as being towed along.

From the outside the two look identical. Same hours, same full diary. The only way I know to tell them apart is to ask who set the pace, and to answer honestly.

Why it always feels like a scramble

I think it comes down to the 31st of December being some imaginary made-up deadline that we treat as a real one.

Sometimes, some of what we rush to finish would be perfectly fine landing on the 14th of January. With a little pause and asking the questions, some people may not care which side of New Year a project closes. But the calendar turning over feels like a verdict on the year, so every half-finished project from June suddenly acquires a due date it never had before.

There’s a practical reason too. Twelve weeks is the number on paper. Take out the back half of December, the school plays, the day you lose to a cold, and you’re nearer nine. The scramble has some truth in it. There really is less time than there looks.

Add the fact that everyone else is doing exactly the same sums, and sending you their “before Christmas” requests as a result, and you can see how a perfectly reasonable October becomes a pile-up.

Four steps if you feel the scramble

Joanne Grobbelaar, a Manchester-based resilience architect and coach, describes the end-of-year scramble as the moment a chosen push becomes a pull. Her advice is to stop adding to the list, pause long enough to count the real weeks left, think about which deadlines are real, and then act on a shorter list.

That’s the short version. Here is how it works in an ordinary week.

1. Stop

Stop adding. For the next seven days, nothing new goes on this year’s list. When a request comes in, write it down somewhere separate and reply that you’ll come back to them by Friday. Nobody has ever minded that sentence as much as we imagine they will.

You are only stopping the intake here. The work you’ve already committed to carries on.

2. Pause

Take twenty minutes with a paper calendar and count the working weeks you truly have. Cross out the days you already know are gone. Be realistic about the week before Christmas.

Most people I do this with go quiet at this point. The number is always smaller than the one they’d been planning against, and seeing it written down is uncomfortable for about a minute and then a relief.

3. Think

Now look at the list against the real number and ask one question of each item. Who set this date?

If a client set it, or the tax office, it stays. If you set it, back in the spring when the year looked long, you’re allowed to move it. A surprising amount of the pressure in an autumn diary turns out to be promises we made to ourselves in a different season.

4. Now act

Choose the few things that will finish this year and tell the people involved. Then move the rest into January on purpose, each with a date beside it.

That last part matters more than it sounds. A project you’ve deliberately parked until the 12th of January stops taking up room in your head. One you’ve quietly dropped tends to follow you around all December.

And a high five if you’re floating in

Some of you are reading this from a calm place. Maybe you planned the year well, or held a boundary in the summer that’s paying you back now, or this is just a gentler season than the last one. High five, you.

Please don’t apologise for your calm, and don’t go looking for a scramble to join because everyone around you seems to be in one. Calm in October can feel almost suspicious. Giving it a huge permission slip.

The one thing I would encourage you to do is go and look for the wins that got you to the calm. Write down what got you here while you can still remember. Which decision, which no, which thing you stopped doing. Next October you will want those notes so keep them somewhere safe, and add a reminder note to your calendar for August 2027 to revisit and re claim.

Honestly, most of us are both. I can be floating on Tuesday and scrambling by Thursday. That is a normal week in my house.

Why I cook when it gets busy

The first thing to go in a scramble is lunch. It becomes toast at the laptop, then biscuits at three, then dinner at nine because you forgot you were hungry. I’ve watched very capable women run a whole quarter this way and wonder why they feel wobbly by November.

Cooking does something for me that almost nothing else in a working day does. It has a beginning and an end. It’s done with your hands, away from a screen, and chopping an onion gives you ten minutes when nobody can reach you. Then at the end of it there’s something warm in a bowl. On a day when every other task spills into tomorrow, that counts for a lot.

My weekend sourdough making sessions are the most grounding actions I take. I make a lot of sourdough bread in Q4!

There’s a practical side to getting you focused on food as well. Meals built around protein, fibre and good fats keep your energy steadier through an afternoon than whatever was nearest the kettle. I know that I make better decisions when I’ve eaten properly, and so do my clients.

These are three I lean on when the diary is full. None of them needs much attention and all of them make leftovers.

Red Lentil, Carrot and Cumin Soup

This is the one I’d make on a Sunday so that Monday to Wednesday’s lunch is already sorted. Lentils bring protein and fibre, it costs very little, and it’s ready in the time it takes to answer three emails you shouldn’t be answering on a Sunday.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to finish
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 medium carrots (about 300g), peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp chilli flakes, optional
• 200g red split lentils, rinsed
• 1.2 litres vegetable stock
• Juice of ½ lemon
• Sea salt and black pepper
• Greek yoghurt and fresh coriander, to serve

Method

1. Warm the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and carrots and cook gently for about eight minutes, stirring now and then, until the onion is soft.
2. Add the garlic, cumin and chilli flakes if you’re using them. Stir for a minute until it smells wonderful.
3. Tip in the lentils and pour over the stock. Bring to the boil, then turn it down and simmer for 20 minutes, until the lentils have collapsed and the carrots are tender.
4. Blitz with a hand blender. I like to leave it a little rough. Add a splash of water if it’s thicker than you’d like.
5. Stir in the lemon juice and season well. Taste it and add more lemon if it needs waking up.
6. Serve with a spoonful of yoghurt, some coriander and a thread of olive oil. It keeps for four days in the fridge and freezes well.

Harissa Chicken Traybake with Squash and Chickpeas

Ten minutes of chopping and then the oven does the rest while you do something else. Preferably something that isn’t work. Squash is at its best right now and it goes sweet and sticky at the edges next to the harissa.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 8 chicken thighs, bone in and skin on (about 1kg)
• 1 small butternut squash (about 800g), peeled, deseeded and cut into 3cm chunks
• 2 red onions, cut into wedges
• 1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 3 tbsp rose harissa paste
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 lemon
• Sea salt and black pepper
• 150g Greek yoghurt, to serve
• Small bunch of flat-leaf parsley or coriander, roughly chopped

Method

1. Heat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius, 180 fan, gas mark 6.
2. Put the squash and onions into your largest roasting tin. Add one tablespoon of the oil and one tablespoon of the harissa, season, and toss with your hands until everything is coated.
3. Rub the chicken thighs with the rest of the harissa and oil and season them well. Sit them on top of the vegetables, skin side up.
4. Roast for 25 minutes.
5. Take the tin out and stir the chickpeas into the juices around the chicken. Return to the oven for another 20 minutes, until the chicken skin is crisp, the juices run clear and the squash is soft.
6. Squeeze over the lemon, scatter with the herbs and serve with the yoghurt on the side. Leftovers make a very good lunch, cold or warm.

If you don’t eat meat, leave out the chicken, double the chickpeas and add a block of halloumi or feta for the last 15 minutes.

Baked Cinnamon Pears with Walnuts and Yoghurt

Something sweet that doesn’t send you looking for the biscuit tin an hour later. I’d eat these warm after dinner and cold for breakfast the next morning. Pears are in season and they’re usually cheap in October, which helps.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 4 pears, ripe but still firm, halved and cored
• 20g butter, or 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp honey or maple syrup
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp water
• 50g walnuts, roughly chopped
• 200g full-fat Greek yoghurt, to serve

Method

1. Heat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius, 170 fan, gas mark 5.
2. Lay the pears cut side up in a baking dish that holds them snugly. Dot with the butter, drizzle over the honey and dust with the cinnamon. Pour the water into the bottom of the dish.
3. Bake for 25 minutes.
4. Scatter over the walnuts and return to the oven for five to ten minutes more, until the pears are soft when you press them with a knife and the walnuts are toasted.
5. Serve warm with the yoghurt and spoon over the juices from the dish. They keep for three days in the fridge.

Twelve weeks is still a lot of year

You don’t have to sprint it. You don’t have to finish everything you started in March. There’s time to do a few things properly and to eat a hot lunch while you do them.

If you’re not sure whether you’re pushing or being pulled right now, the Resilience Blueprint Assessment is a good place to find out. It’s free, it takes two minutes, and it shows you where your foundations are holding and where they need some attention before the year closes.

Take the Resilience Blueprint Assessment at joannegrobbelaar.com.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the end of the year always feel so rushed?

Because we treat the 31st of December as a real deadline when for most work it isn’t one. Projects that had no due date in the summer suddenly acquire one, and everyone you work with is doing the same thing at the same time. There are also fewer working weeks left than the calendar suggests once you take out the second half of December.

What should I do if I feel overwhelmed in October?

Stop adding to this year’s list for one week. Count the working weeks you really have. Look at each deadline and ask who set it, then keep the ones other people depend on and move the ones you set yourself. Choose a short list to finish and give everything else a date in January.

What are good grounding foods for a busy autumn week?

Warm, simple meals built around protein, fibre and seasonal vegetables. A lentil soup you can batch for lunches, a one-tin dinner with squash and chickpeas, and baked fruit with yoghurt and nuts will all carry you further through a full day than snacks at your desk.

RESOURCES AND NEXT STEPS

If you’re looking for more support and guidance, here are some valuable resources:

• Book a conversation to see how we can help you with your 2026 plans HERE.
• COMPLETE THE RESILIENCE SCORECARD HERE  and get a clear picture of which pillar needs your most attention.
• Use our Flip The Thinking Toolkit HERE and share it with people around you. See how it helps you enrich the connection and conversation.
• Follow along on LinkedIn HERE
• Find out more about our women’s leadership programme HERE