How To Protect Your Priorities Before The Holidays Hit
Focus on This
Michael Hyatt
4.5 • 657 Ratings
🗓️ 10 November 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Deadlines stack up. Daylight shrinks. Invitations multiply. In this episode, Marissa Hyatt and Joel Miller show you how to defend what matters—at work and at home—so you can enjoy the season and finish the year well. You’ll get boundary scripts, simple rituals, and a right-sized Ideal Week you can start using today.
Key Takeaways
- Practice Self-Advocacy. Be militantly on your own side. Set and communicate clear boundaries—no evening or weekend emails, true sick time, and real OOO when you travel.
- Say “No” Without Drama. Use a simple “yes-and-priorities” script: affirm the request → “Based on prior commitments, I can’t take this on right now.” → offer an alternate timeline or resource.
- Enlist Help in Reprioritizing. Are your leaders piling on new priorities? Rather than saying “no,” enlist their help in deciding what shifts. Say: “Here’s my current slate—what should I sideline to make room for this?”
- Protect Your Rituals. Your Morning, Evening, Workday Startup, and Workday Shutdown rituals keep you grounded. Simplify if needed, but uphold them to protect your energy and self-care.
- Refine Your Ideal Week. Budget your time on paper first—work blocks, family events, recovery, errands—then mirror it to your digital calendar. Adjust for the season’s unique constraints and commitments.
Watch on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/WUzUEVKA8Ls
This episode was produced by Sarah Vorhees Wendel of VW Sound
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Holidays bring deadlines. I'm talking about kids concerts. I'm talking about office parties. I'm talking about cookie swaps. I'm talking about year-end projects. Is it possible to enjoy the season without losing your focus or even your mind? |
| 0:26.9 | Welcome to focus on this. the most productive podcast on the internet. I'm Joel Miller. |
| 0:32.8 | And I'm Marissa Hyatt. And this is where we remind you of something you already know. It's not about getting more things done. It's about getting the right things done. Both at work and in life. |
| 0:38.3 | And today, we're talking about protecting your priorities before the holidays hit. |
| 0:45.8 | In case you haven't looked at your calendar, they are right around the corner. |
| 0:49.1 | So it is prime time to be talking about this. |
| 0:53.5 | And I don't know about you all, but these holidays are |
| 0:56.9 | coming in like a freight train. So we got to get our priorities set and make sure that they're |
| 1:03.1 | protected before we get there. You know, I always think about like seasons feel different, right? |
| 1:08.3 | And I don't know what the deal is exactly but spring to me always |
| 1:13.9 | feels very open-ended very you know fresh i mean that's obvious it feels expansive and then summer |
| 1:20.6 | really feels expansive it's just like endless time which of course is never true because it's over |
| 1:26.1 | before you know it and you did a ton of stuff and you didn't get a ton of other stuff done. |
| 1:30.2 | But that's not the way the holiday season feels. |
| 1:33.3 | It feels like it's chaos. |
| 1:36.4 | It feels like a circus. |
| 1:38.5 | And on top of that, you're trying to work in the middle of it. |
| 1:41.4 | And it's crazy making. |
| 1:43.6 | And not to mention, our days are shorter. |
| 1:46.3 | So they literally, from a light standpoint, we're not visually feeling like we have as much time |
| 1:54.3 | as we do in the summer. So I feel like this time of year is really everything compresses. |
| 2:02.6 | Our time, our energy, our calendars, everything feels compressed. And we wind up at this point in the year, like we've been |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Michael Hyatt, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Michael Hyatt and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.