How to spend the last weeks of the year productively

The end-of-the-year holidays are a weird time—it feels like time ticks differently. Like a strange twilight zone, where boundaries between life and work blur, and, more often than not, life takes the upper hand. 

The office is half-empty, people are gift-shopping and planning gatherings, and everyone’s either wrapping up leftover tasks or just admitting defeat and leaving them for the new year. 

It’s easy to let yourself go and join the holiday-brained horde. Perhaps this is exactly what we need, allowing ourselves to finally take a breath and release some of the year’s pent-up stress—an invaluable pause given the ever-rising burnout rates across the board.

But there’s another way to take care of yourself and do so while being productive. If you’re smart about using this quieter period, you can relieve a huge amount of stress by setting yourself up for success in January, making the ‘new year, new me’ transition feel less like a chaotic sprint and more like a gentle glide.

5 productive things to do in the final weeks of the year

Let’s be real, we all WANT to be super organized, but there’s never enough energy in the day to actually get to it. We all WANT to learn and develop our skills, but—same problem. I bet you’ve thought to yourself that you would totally do all those things, if only you had a few free days to get to it. 

You probably see where I’m going with this, namely, now is the time!

1. Deal with last year’s baggage

You know those tasks that have been living rent-free in your head since March? The ones that whisper “you really should get to this” every time you open your laptop? Now’s the time to finally evict them.

One of the biggest stressors isn’t the work you’re actively doing—it’s the mental load of things perpetually sitting in your “I’ll get to it when I have time” pile. These half-finished projects and lingering to-dos drain your energy even when you’re not thinking about them. The new year will bring enough fresh challenges without dragging old ones along for the ride.

It’s time for a Sunday reset—but for the year. 

So make a list. Be honest about what actually needs finishing versus what you can officially abandon (yes, that’s allowed). Then block out a few focused hours to knock out the essentials. Future you will be grateful not to start January already behind.

2. Actually plan your work (and life)

“Plan your year” sounds like obvious advice, but what does it actually mean beyond buying a new planner and writing “be more organized” on January 1st?

Start with what you already know. Conference in June? Book those tickets now before prices surge. Quarterly presentations? Schedule prep time in your calendar months ahead. Annual reviews coming up? Block time to gather your accomplishments and update your portfolio.

But don’t stop at work. When are you taking vacation days? When do you need to travel for family obligations? What personal goals need regular time blocked out? Getting all of this onto your calendar now means you’re designing your year instead of just reacting to it. You’ll spot conflicts early, protect time for what matters, and avoid that sinking feeling of “wait, when was I supposed to do this?”

You probably already have some idea about what your January will look like, so that’s a month you can get more specific with. And, if you’re good at this kind of planning, you should help your team with productivity management, too. 

3. Step back and think about the meta

When was the last time you actually thought about how you work, not just what you’re working on?

This quiet period is perfect for reflection. What were your wins this year? Not just the obvious promotions or completed projects, but the subtle shifts—maybe you finally figured out you’re most productive in the morning, or discovered that certain types of tasks energize you while others drain you.

Now the important part: what are you going to stop doing? Everyone talks about New Year’s resolutions as additions, but the ‘Stop Doing’ list is where real productivity gains happen. Maybe you’re attending meetings that don’t need you. Maybe you’re saying yes to projects that don’t align with your actual goals. Maybe you’re spending hours on tasks someone else could handle better.

This is also the time to check if your professional trajectory still aligns with what you actually want from life. It’s easy to get caught in momentum—climbing a ladder without checking if it’s leaning against the right wall. A quick gut check now beats a full-blown existential crisis in six months.

4. Finally explore AI properly

Everyone’s talking about AI. Your LinkedIn feed is full of it, executives mention it in every meeting, and your tech-savvy colleague won’t shut up about their latest ChatGPT hack.

But here’s the thing—most people haven’t actually sat down to figure out how AI could genuinely help them. Not because they don’t want to, but because who has the time when you’re drowning in daily tasks?

Well, now you do. Spend a few hours actually playing with these tools. Take a short course. Read beyond the hype headlines. Experiment with automating repetitive tasks or using AI to handle first drafts of routine work.

You can get some inspiration from our CMO! 

The goal isn’t to become an AI expert—it’s to discover one or two practical applications that could save you hours next year. Maybe AI can help you summarize long documents, draft initial emails, or analyze data faster. The difference between a valuable employee and an invaluable one might just be knowing how to work smarter with the tools everyone else is still ignoring.

5. Clean up your digital (and physical) space

Digital clutter is the modern equivalent of a messy desk, except worse because it follows you everywhere. That browser with 47 open tabs. The desktop buried under random files. The inbox with 3,000 unread emails. The Slack messages you’ve been meaning to respond to since October.

It all adds up to a constant low-level stress that makes everything harder. A chaotic digital workspace creates a chaotic mind. So take a few hours to ruthlessly organize—close those tabs, archive old projects, update the passwords you’ve been clicking “remind me tomorrow” on for six months, delete files you’ll never need, set up folders and systems that actually make sense.

And yes, tackle your physical space, too. This can mean both cleaning your desk, but also thinking whether you need a new one—what improvements in your immediate physical space would lead to improvements in your productivity? 

Starting the new year with clean, organized spaces—both digital and physical—you’ll spend less time searching for things and more time actually doing things.

Will this work? Only one way to find out

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations—the first step to end the year productively is getting ideas for how to do it, and you’ve completed this by reading this article.

Time to get to planning and optimizing. 

Of course, all this planning and optimization only matters if you can actually measure whether it’s working. That’s where DeskTime comes in—helping you and your team track productivity patterns, spot time drains, and figure out what’s actually moving the needle. Because the difference between feeling productive and being productive is having the data to prove it.

So, here’s an idea for your next inter-holiday productive task: learn more about DeskTime and check out the demo to see what it can do for you and your team.

Article written by

Viesturs Abelis

A fan of crunching complex topics into digestible bites, Viesturs helps tech companies – and startups in particular – convey their unique stories to broader audiences. In addition to his work on DeskTime’s blog, you’ll come across his writing in Tech.eu, The Next Web, Crunchbase, and more.