New Year’s Resolutions are for Amateurs: The "Q5" Strategy 🧨
- Leo Kanell
- Dec 10
- 6 min read
Stop planning for "New Year, New Me" and start stealing market share while your competition is hungover.
The "January 2nd" Panic Attack 😱
It is a ritual as predictable as it is pathetic.
On the morning of January 2nd, the corporate world collectively wakes up to a self-inflicted crisis.
The gyms are overcrowded with people who haven’t trained in six months, desperately trying to reverse weeks of eating cookies with a single treadmill session. Inboxes are overflowing with 3,000 unread messages, creating a mental breakdown before the first cup of coffee is even poured. ☕️
There is a frantic, desperate scramble to "start" - to launch the initiatives, hire the staff, and deploy the capital that was frozen in late November.
This chaos is not a sign of ambition. It is a symptom of failure. 📉
It is the result of the "January 1st Delusion" - the belief that the calendar possesses the magical ability to fix your broken business.
Most business owners treat December like a victory lap. They look at the P&L in mid-November, decide the year is "effectively over," and coast into the holidays. They permit a culture of "wrapping up" rather than "pushing through."
But while the amateurs are winding down and getting miserable, the pros are actually getting happier.
Data shows that while employee happiness typically drops in Q4 for the average stagnant company, it actually rises for high-performing organizations. Why? Because winning feels better than eggnog. 🥂
The top 1% understand that the race is continuous. They don't seek permission to rest just because the calendar says "December."
Welcome to Q5.
"Q5" is the hidden month comprised of the last four weeks of the year and the first two weeks of the new year. It is the only time of the year when the noise of the competition drops to near zero, yet the demand for solutions remains non-zero.
While your competitors are incapacitated by holiday parties and out-of-office auto-responders, the landscape shifts. This isn't a time for rest; it is a time for asymmetric warfare. 🥷
The organizations that win 2026 will not be the ones that start fast in January. They will be the ones that never stopped in December.
The 36% "Wage Theft" Reality 📉
Let’s be clear about what "winding down" actually means. It means you are lighting money on fire.
If you think your team is just "taking it easy" in December, the data disagrees. It shows they have effectively quit.
Forensic analysis of workforce productivity shows that in December, productivity scores for remote and hybrid teams plummet to a 36/100.
For context, a healthy score is in the mid-50s. A 36 is barely a pulse. 💀
If you have a payroll of $100,000 a month, a drop to 36% efficiency means you are incinerating $64,000 of cash in December. You aren't paying for "holiday cheer." You are paying for dead air.
And here is the worst part: The "Recharge" is a lie.
We tell ourselves that this break is necessary. We say, "They need to rest so they come back fresh in January!"
Wrong. Science says they come back stupider.
Research shows that the "vacation glow" burns off almost instantly upon return for nearly 24% of people. Why? Because returning to a stopped train requires massive energy. 🚂
It takes the human brain about 23 minutes to recover from a single interruption. A two-week holiday is the ultimate interruption. It is a system wipe.
When your team returns in January, they aren't "resuming" work. They are reconstructing their entire mental model of the job. They spend the first two weeks just trying to remember where the files are and what the passwords are.
You aren't starting fresh in January; you are starting from a massive deficit.
The "January Premium" (Why You’re Overpaying) 💸
While you are losing productivity, you are also about to walk into a financial trap.
The amateur waits until January to spend money because "new budgets open up." The professional spends money in December because everything is on sale.
This is simple supply and demand.
In January, every business in America wakes up and tries to do the exact same thing at the exact same time. They all try to buy ads, and they all try to hire staff.
1. The Ad Market Discount 📉 In December, the big B2C retailers stop spending money on December 26th. The B2B competitors turn their ads off to "save budget." The result? The auction house is empty. Data shows that ad costs (CPM) on major platforms can drop by 17% in late December. You are buying the exact same leads as the guy next door, but he is waiting until January to pay full retail price. You are getting them at a discount.
2. The Hiring Surge Pricing 📈 If you wait until January to hire, you are an idiot. January is "Surge Pricing" for talent. LinkedIn data shows a 134% spike in job ads in the first weeks of the year. Everyone is hiring. Candidates are rate-shopping. They have five offers on the table. You are forced into a bidding war. But in December, the phone is silent. If you interview a candidate on December 20th, you are the only one calling them. You have zero competition. You lock in the A-player while your competitor is arguing about who is bringing the potato salad to the potluck.
The "Empty Gym" Opportunity 🏋️♂️
If you walk into a gym on January 2nd, you cannot get a machine. It is loud, crowded, and inefficient.
If you walk in on December 28th, it is empty. You can super-set. You can move freely.
The B2B marketplace functions the exact same way.
After December 15th, the "noise" of business drops off a cliff. The assistants are on vacation. The "Gatekeepers" are in Cabo.
But do you know who is still checking their email? The Boss. 👔
The CEOs, Founders, and VPs - the people who actually sign the checks - are often bored at home. They are scrolling through their phones to escape awkward family conversations.
Data shows that while email volume drops in December, open rates stay steady or even go up.
This is the only time of year you have a direct line to the throne.
If you send a cold email on January 5th, you are one of 500 people "circling back." You get deleted. If you send a cold email on December 28th, you are the only notification on their screen.
You aren't being "annoying." You are being present when others are absent.
Stop apologizing for working. Start closing the clients who are frustrated that their current vendor is "Out of Office until Jan 5th." 📵
The Mercenaries vs. The Missionaries ⚔️
Finally, Q5 is the ultimate culture filter.
If you want to know who on your team is going to help you win in 2026, just look around the office (or Slack) right now.
The Mercenary asks: "Can we leave early on the 23rd?" They view the job as a transaction. They are the ones dragging your productivity score down to a 36.
The Missionary asks: "What do we need to close before the break so we hit the ground running?" They view the quiet period as an opportunity. They use the silence to clear the decks, organize files, and set strategy without the interruption of daily fires.
You don't need to be a tyrant. You don't need to cancel Christmas.
But you do need to set the standard. If the CEO checks out on December 15th, the company dies on December 16th.
The Q5 Checklist ✅
So, how do you execute this without burning out? You don't work harder; you work smarter.
Here is your battle plan for the next 3 weeks:
1. The "December Offer" 🤝 Issue your job offers by December 20th with a start date of January 5th. Lock the talent down before the January bidding war begins.
2. The "Empty Auction" Buy 💰 Pre-pay your Q1 ad spend now. If you have cash, dump it into ad credits to capture that 17% discount. You lower your taxable income for this year, but you buy growth for next year.
3. The "Backlog Burn" 🔥 Use the quiet week between Christmas and New Year’s to clear all technical debt. Fix the CRM. Clean the email list. Organize the drive. Ensure that January 2nd is for New Revenue, not Old Repairs.
Clock In ⏰
The "January 1st Delusion" is a comforting lie. It tells us that we can stop, ignore our responsibilities, and miraculously return better, faster, and stronger.
The reality is that momentum is hard to build and easy to lose.
The "Stop-Start Tax" destroys your speed. The "January Premium" destroys your budget. And the "Hiring Surge" destroys your talent pool.
Stop asking for permission to rest. Rest when you win, not when the calendar says "holiday."
2026 isn't determined by what you do in January. It's determined by what you do right now.
Clock in. 👊
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