January means....

1. Catching up on all the jobs you wanted to do at work before Christmas but didn't finish
2. Doing all the jobs you should have done over christmas whilst you were enjoying a hard earnt rest
3. Doing all the jobs you realised you needed to do whilst you were resting or when you came back and looked with fresh eyes at your daily routine.
4. Doing all the jobs other people realised needed to be done whilst they were resting or when they came back
5. Catching up on all the important news and events that someone cleverly buried in the pre-christmas dead zone, and you only just realised happened.
6. Catching up all the events and news that would have been annouced over Christmas if there had been anyone to listen to them
7. Thinking of all the things you want your colleagues, your boss and your subordinates to do and then emailing them about it
8. Figuring out how to actually spend this years budget before anyone realises you don't need that much money and takes it off you (as opposed to how you justified needing it before Christmas)
9. Initiating lots of exciting new projects that seem like a good idea, but you will curse before too long
10. Setting 'SMART' objectives that will look easy now, and impossible in 12 months.
11. Inviting people to new team meetings, as you feel that you havent seen anyone for a while, and now is as good a time as any to resolve to communicate better and fit in some meetings before everyones diary fills up. (Unless of course you're really busy in which case you will be busy re-arranging meetings that you had in your diary from November but are now considered less important than the latest configuration of cross-functional teams)
12. Responding to invitations to training in areas you didn't realise your job covered.
13. Parting the red sea of emails on your system that appear every hour as everyone else does items 1-11 to and emails you about it, then of course answering as many as possible of these emails in such a way as at least some of the work goes to someone else.
14. Travelling to and from work in the dark
15. Hoping it doesnt snow, except at the weekend
16. Wondering when your next holiday is and mumuring 'Christmas seems a long time ago'
17. Realising that you have forgotten even to make a new years resolution
18. Starting the Atkins diet by having bacon and eggs for breakfast but forgetting that you have to leave out bread and potatoes thereby INCREASING your calorie intake.
19. Forgetting what your husband/wife and children look like
20. (Hopefully) realising that you actually in a funny kind of way MISSED work over Christmas and that you are glad that you were not laid off in the last round of job cuts.