The Calendar Gets Thin in November. You Don't Have to Catch Up.

The calendar looks thinner in November. Two pages left. You see it, and something in your chest starts to hurry before you've even decided anything.

“I should get something done before the year ends.” I suspect a lot of people mutter some version of that in early November. I'm fairly sure I did it every year.

The word “catch up”

Pull out the list you wrote in January and about half of it is probably untouched. Two thoughts show up at the same time. One says “there are still two whole months.” The other says “there are only two months left.”

Funny thing: they're both giving the same order. Run harder from here. Cram ten months of unfinished things into two.

I've come to think that's a bit harsh. January-me wrote that list without knowing November-me. January-me had no idea what kind of days were coming, or what I'd have to hold together, or which plans I'd quietly set down to do that.

Two months aren't for making up lost ground

If you spend the last two months catching up, December 31st is almost already written. The verdict that you didn't finish anyway, and the vow that next year you'll really try. Then January arrives and the same scene starts over.

So this year, maybe flip the order. Before counting what didn't get done, count what it took to get here at all.

It doesn't have to be impressive. A month you got through without falling apart. The one call you'd been putting off. All the mornings you just showed up. None of that was on the list, so it never gets scored. But it still happened.

Another way to read a thin calendar

A thin calendar in November also means you lived through all of that. It's not that two pages are few. It's that ten pages are a lot.

Whatever didn't happen this year can happen next year. Or, honestly, maybe it doesn't need to happen at all. A resolution isn't a ruler to measure yourself with. It's more like a letter from the person you were back then.

If you're standing in front of the calendar right now feeling rushed, here's the one thing I'd like to say. Getting this far is already enough for this year.