What would you love to have achieved by Christmas?

September 30, 2026

There’s a particular kind of sentence that starts appearing around this time of year.

“I’ll do it in January.”

The course. The savings plan. The idea you’ve been sitting on. The time you keep meaning to make for yourself.

And I understand it. Once autumn gets busy, it’s very easy to mentally skip ahead to a fresh year and imagine that we’ll have more time, more energy and a much clearer head then.

But October, November and December are still part of our lives.

There is room to make progress during them. The question is: what do you actually want to move forward?

Start with the life you’re living now

Before choosing your Q4 goal, ask yourself:

What would I love to have achieved by Christmas?

Think about something that would make a meaningful difference to you.

Perhaps you’d love to have money put aside for something specific. You might want to finish a course, get a business idea moving, or make a regular space in your week for something you enjoy.

Your goal can also be about making everyday life feel easier. Getting a workable routine in place is a perfectly worthwhile thing to spend a quarter on.

Consider what you have the capacity for, too. A goal needs to fit around the commitments and circumstances you actually have.

Choose one main focus

This is the part I have to remind myself of.

I love an idea. And sometimes one idea turns into six ideas and an expectation that I’ll somehow have a completely different life by next Tuesday.

Choosing one main goal gives you somewhere to return your attention when the week gets busy.

You’ll still have other responsibilities. You’ll still do other things. But when you have a little time to move something forward, you know where you want it to go.

If you’re torn between a few goals, ask:

Which one would make the biggest difference to me over the next three months?

Start there.

Make it clear enough to recognise progress

“Get organised” can mean almost anything.

“Have a weekly planning routine that I use each Sunday” gives you something you can actually practise.

The same applies to other goals:

“Read more” could become “Finish three books by 31 December.”
“Save money” could become “Put €300 aside by the end of December.”
“Learn Irish” could become “Complete a beginner course and practise twice a week.”

Choose an amount, outcome or routine that makes sense for you. When you can explain your goal simply, it becomes easier to work out what to do next.

Give your goal a place in your week

This is where the quarterly goal page in The Educator’s Atelier Daily Planner comes in.

It gives you a place to pause and decide what you want to work towards. Then your weekly overview helps you make room for the actions.

Once you’ve written your goal, ask:

What can I do this week that would move it forward?

For a savings goal, it might be checking what you can realistically put aside and setting up a transfer.
For a course, it might be choosing one and blocking out your first study session.
For a creative project, it might be spending twenty minutes on the first draft.

Put that action into your week. Give it a day or a time, and make it small enough that you can begin. You don’t need every step worked out before you take the first one.

Check in as you go

At the end of each month, come back to your goal.

What has moved forward? What got in the way? What needs to change?

If you keep postponing an action, look at why. Perhaps it’s too big for the time you’ve given it. Perhaps you need help. Perhaps your circumstances have changed and the goal needs adjusting. You can make those decisions as you go. The point of checking in is to help you plan the next step with a bit more understanding of what’s working.