If you have projects that run on a calendar year, plan as though December does not exist. Plan to deliver your project by November 30, not December 31… unless you want to work between Christmas and New Year.
Things start to slow down in mid-December. Key stakeholders and executive sponsors may start taking their year end holidays. Vendors, suppliers, and contractors are all slowing down. Those who are still working will be under a lot of pressure to deliver to their high value customers. Hopefully, you are one of them.
If your planned project deadline is end November, you at least have a buffer of two weeks in the first half of December. You will need it in the US because the week of Thanksgiving (the last week of November) also doesn’t exist!
So instead of waiting until December to share my tips on how to weather the stress of project deadlines, I am sharing them in mid-November to give you a head start.