Your Next Clear Move
Welcome to Your Next Clear Move™—the podcast for leaders, professionals, and high-capacity humans who are done “getting ready” and ready to move.
I’m Debbie Peterson, Leadership Readiness Expert, and in each episode I deliver grounded insight, clarity-driven mindset strategies, and one actionable step to help you stop the drift and lead yourself forward.
This isn’t about fixing what’s broken. It’s about reconnecting to what matters—and making decisions that align with who you are and how you want to lead next.
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Your Next Clear Move
How to Start January Already Ahead
January doesn’t have to catch you off guard. We walk through a practical, no-drama plan to finish the year with intention and step into the new one with momentum—without sacrificing the holidays or modeling chaos for your team. Instead of waiting for the calendar to reset you, we choose a clear January “win,” reverse-engineer it into projects and tasks, and then calendar the reality of Q4 so the plan fits life, not the other way around.
We start by putting a single outcome in the “top box”—anything from a finished proposal to a rested team—and ladder every effort beneath it using a simple org chart map. From there, we run the Clarity Compass (why, what, who, how, now) to sharpen focus and surface the next clear move. You’ll hear how the bucket list method turns overload into action by rating work A/B/C, scheduling the As, batching the Bs, and confidently parking the Cs. We also talk about a values check that makes your plan stick because it protects what matters most during the busy season.
For team leaders, we share a playbook to co-create a January win, write one-line “definitions of done,” align time-off calendars, set light-but-clear blackout dates, and agree on handoffs and response expectations. You’ll learn why “what we permit, we promote” is more than a phrase—it’s a lever for team energy and results. Ten minutes of thinking time now can change how you feel for the next ten weeks. Decide what you want to be true by mid-January, map it, and take one small step today.
If this helped you reset your approach to Q4 and Q1 planning, hit follow, share it with a leader who needs less chaos and more clarity, and leave a quick review so others can find the show.
Hey, hello, and welcome back. I am Debbie Peterson of Getting to Clarity, and this is another episode of the Getting to Clarity Show. And this is the place that you come to get your next clear move in your career, your leadership, your business. And it's not about having it all figured out, it's just having the chance to know what your next clear move is. One step to get you back into action. And today we are talking about how to start January already ahead. And what that means is you need to be thinking now. So stay tuned.
SPEAKER_01:Welcome to the Getting to Clarity Podcast.
SPEAKER_02:The place where busy leaders discover how to create more success in their leadership journey with less sacrifice in their life.
SPEAKER_01:Here's your host, Debbie Peterson of Getting to Clarity.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I know you're thinking, I don't want to be thinking about this. It's not the end of the year. Come on. But hey, it's Q4. So it's coming quick, and I want you to be prepared. So I'm sure you're thinking, what? It's barely fall. But for me, fall is kind of a natural reset. It's the time of year where I start shaping next year so I can finish this one with intention. You know, kids are back in school, routines are returning after the busy summer, holidays begin to crowd the calendar, and with that comes distraction and often chaos. So your next clear move in the fall is the choice to get clear on what matters next. So the rest of the year does not run you. You are running it. So when you pause, even just for a little bit, and you define what you want to walk into January with, you give yourself a guide that carries you through the busy season. But you have to give it some thought before the craziness sets in. So here's why this is important, especially for leaders. Leaders who do not pause in early fall run out of runway. They spend November and December playing catch up because of all the holidays added to normal life, which spills into their teams and their homes. Holidays are meant to be enjoyed with people who matter. And if you don't protect space before the rush, you're going to end up cramming, reacting, and modeling that reactivity for your team. So consider the phrase, what we permit, we promote. Okay? When a leader operates from clarity, then the team has a chance to mirror it. When a leader is scattered, then the team absorbs that energy and results can suffer. So what can you do? Well, I'm so glad that you asked because I want to give you some tools. That's what I love to do. So this particular podcast is going to be very actionable. And the first tool is to reverse engineer with a simple org chart map. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to picture an org chart, first of all, an organizational chart. And I want to picture you to picture your goal for January sitting in the president's box at the top of the org chart, okay? And for you, that goal might be maybe it's a finished proposal, maybe it is on boarding a client, maybe it is a clean budget close, right? Um, or maybe it's a rested team that is ready to go in January. Now, if that is your goal, I want you to drop down one level to the where the line of the SVP boxes are, okay? And I want you to name three to five high-level categories that support that goal. Okay? So what are the things that you need to put your time and attention on in order to achieve the goal that you have in the president spot? And then under those SVP categories, I want you to consider maybe manager positions. And that's where you list the key projects or the big rocks that are under each category. And then one more level down under that, maybe this is the employee level, you capture the concrete tasks that move each category forward. Okay, so this is a real quick uh if you're familiar with uh project planning, then uh it's like a work breakdown structure, and it turns your wish into a plan that you can start today. So that is a really easy way to break something down to get you into action. So reverse engineer it. Number two, calendar the reality. Open your calendar, layer in the facts, schedule in the travel, schedule the conferences, the school events, the holidays, um, the year-end close, schedule in your team vacations, schedule in your own planned time off, and build a buffer around all of it. Decide now what has to go, what has to be paused for this season, what has to be simplified. Okay? A plan that ignores reality is not a plan. A third tool, the Clarity Compass at a high level. Um, run a fast pass through the why, what, who, how, now. Why? Why does this matter for Q4 and early Q1? Get really clear on that so that you've got the right focus. What is the real win by January 15? Name it. Maybe you brainstorm some and you and your team come up with the ultimate priority. And there's a discussion there, a really good discussion. Who can help or needs to be looped in early? Who are the people who are doing it, who have done it, that you can go to for help? This might be consultants or vendors. Uh, who are the resources that you need to bring in? Um, think about the people that can help you get this done. How? How are we going to move forward in simple steps? So if you go back to the reverse engineer with the org map, you can do something like that. Whatever your Q1 goal is, put it in there and break it down. Now, now is the very next action to start momentum. When you look at your roadmap, then what is your next clear move? And get into action, okay? A fourth tool is something I call the bucket list method. Do a brain dump of everything on your mind, everything that is on your team's list, your list, and assign hard due dates to anything that truly has one. Whatever's left over gets a rating, an A, a B, or a C. An A are items that are critical, gotta be done. B are important, but they're not critical. C is hey, these need to wait. They can wait. And then schedule the A items, batch the B items, and park the C items in your list and review weekly. Okay. Number five is a values check. Ask what is important to me about the holidays and the work I want to walk into in January. If your plan violates your values, it's not going to hold. You're working against yourself. So protect what matters and prune what doesn't. So you might use one of these, you might use some of these, but the idea is to just give you ways to put you more in control of your calendar, having the holidays that you deserve, and walking into January feeling strong. So here's how I use this. Every fall, before the holidays ramp up, I map my next year's starting line. I don't have to have the plan throughout all four quarters. I have a high-level goal and I have some high-level quarterly goals, but I don't have them all mapped out. What I do have is the starting line for January. Because after I come into the office, after uh being uh away, being with friends, out of my routine, I've got to get back into my good habits fast. And this is what that allows me to do. I define what I want waiting for me after New Year's and what I want to protect for the people I love. 10 minutes. That's it. 10 minutes of thinking time can be enough to set the direction. And I ask, if this season went right, what would be true by mid-January? And I put that in the top box of my org chart map. I chunk it down into projects and tasks, and then I calendar the reality. This one choice, this one decision lowers my stress. It helps me to say no when appropriate. It helps me to enjoy the holidays and not feel behind, right? It it just helps with that stress. So, what does this look like for the team? So, again, I want to give this to you, but I want you to be able to use it with your team. Um, co-create the January win. So, in your next team meeting, ask the question: if we felt proud on January 15th, what would be true? Capture one shared outcome and post it where everyone can see it. Then everybody knows what they're working towards. Define success in advance. So for each active project, write a one-line definition of done. Okay? In December. Simple and visible beats perfect and hidden. Maybe you plan off time together. Build the team time off calendar now so everybody knows what everybody else is doing. Establish the blackout dates only where truly needed, and then agree on the handoffs and the response expectations. Everybody knows what it is that's expected of them. Create a stop doing list. I love this one. Name what you will pause, postpone, or simplify between now and next year end. Removing load is a leadership act. And I said next year end, I meant this year end. We're not going for a whole year. We're just going for, you know, the next couple months. So what will you stop doing? So, what's your next clear move? January doesn't have to catch you off guard. And when you use the space that fall gives you to reset, to plan, to get clear, then you get to step into the new year with momentum instead of exhaustion or a lot of stress. And that sort of clarity helps you to make better decisions. You get to lead with more intention and you get to enjoy the holidays without the weight of all this unfinished business hanging over you. It's been planned for. So your next clear move is simple. Decide now what you want January to look like and take one step today that sets you up to arrive there ready. All right, if you would like deeper resources, if you would like any information on my keynotes or my leadership readiness labs, head on over to my website at www.debbi Petersonspeaks.com. And in the meantime, be good to yourself and bye-bye for now.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you for listening to this episode of the Getting to Clarity Podcast with Debbie Peterson.
SPEAKER_02:If you enjoyed this show, please rate and recommend it on iTunes or wherever you enjoy your podcast.
SPEAKER_01:To learn more about how you can bring Debbie and her transformational clarity leadership strategies to your organization, visit Debbie Petersonspeaks.com.
