What do you need to complete before circling back in 2025? Tick an item off your list for a badge!

[Angelie Stephens]

As we approach the end of the year, the rush to complete the most important tasks begins.

In this month’s Work Life blog, survey data shows that 19% of all projects won’t be finished by year-end – and a third of those will get dropped altogether. By mid-December, 71% of workers will either have all tasks wrapped or plan to circle back to them into 2025. So we’ve designated December 17th as World Circle Back day!

Circling back is inevitable (and can spare you some of the stress of the pre-holiday crunch), but delaying work can mean lost context and forgotten communication, leaving you disoriented come January.

We’d love for you to complete our Work Life: Circle Back challenge by December 17! You can either:
1. Complete one priority task before the end of the year
2. Set yourself up for success on projects you need to circle back to in 2025

Please leave a comment below and let us know what you’ve done!

If you’re circling back, here are a few ways to avoid the pitfalls of circling back:

• Send calendar invites to your teammates so they know when you’ll be out of office (and unavailable for synchronous collaboration).

• Add a block of focus time to your calendar, and make that final push on a project that would otherwise go unfinished.

• Share an unfinished page or project with your team so they can move work forward at a time that works for them.

• Create a shared page documenting the status of any project your team has pushed to 2025 – and exactly where you’ve left off work.

• Record a Loom for your future self to help jog your memory on where you left off with all your projects – 2025 you will be grateful for the context!

Once you’ve left a comment below, you’ll receive our special Work Life: Circle Back badge!

[Frankie C.]

Spinning up a team calendar with holiday availability and back-up assignments helps our team plan ahead and ensure appropriate coverage (because the last thing we should be thinking about during vacation time is "work"!)

We also use an internal team Kanban board, anchored by a couple checkpoints ahead of the holiday season, to review priority items together. A little prep helps keep us running smoothly, while also setting realistic expectations to ensure everyone comes back recharged and ready to rock and roll. 

[Claire Chisholm]

Drafting outlines for some important work that is kicking off next quarter! Definitely will be adding some calendar blocks to get it done ✔️

[Patricia Modispacher _appanvil_]

Sounds like I should finally get my ACP certification done 💪

[Stephen_Lugton]

We have a department calendar that we encourage all team members to update with unavailable days, and about 6 weeks before the Christmas holiday period we start showing it at all stand ups and planning sessions to make sure the whole team knows who is around and when, but more importantly who's available if the CEO, CTO, etc. want any data from us, or who can provide support if needed.

We've also been working on making sure that we have Q1 2025 objectives in place since October and our Product Owner spent a couple of days last month tagging all our tickets with a Q4 2024, Q1 2025 or Q2 2025 label so even if he or I aren't available the team know what is coming up.

[aritxun]

Wrapping up the year with some delightful Jira tasks: planning the 2025 vacations and deciding what to plant in the garden next year. Clearly, the toughest decisions of the year! ;)  Who knew wrapping up 2024 could be this pleasant?

[Amanda Barber]

This week has been a whirlwind after some big changes in my company. I'm creating shared Confluence docs to keep track of what still needs to be done after the break. I'm also pushing to get through much of the work that needs to be done before the break so I don't lose the momentum (or log in during the break to finish it!)

[Ron Preston]

Reading this contribution had me realizing that we may not even get our projects launched.

Getting to the point of using online facilitations is not always as simple as getting on with it.

Circling back has me realize I have difficulty moving forward with a lot of technology.

[Tomislav Tobijas _Koios_]

I'm already drafting some blockers for next year for all those things that are 'left in the open'. We managed to wrap up all high-priority stuff and now it's mostly business as usual. But I still see some areas where we can improve so that's the goal for next year - to be even better when it comes to finished and unfinished tasks 🙂

[Liz Tanner]

I have to break the rules a bit and cannot circle back on Dec 17 for my two tied-highest priority goals for they are scheduled one before, one after New Years. 

But, I can on a secondary goal! :D

I've been creating a home server hub since Feb. '24. My goal is to be completely self hosted by the end of Q3 2025. Currently, I'm using old tech to create a planned 4 servers to host a couple self-built/proprietary apps/systems I want to dev over the next year.

My 1st server is just about ready. I name my servers--her name is Lazi. Thus, I'll set Lazi's launch date Dec. 17 for the Circle Back Challenge. Let's goooo!