Lost in the gap week

Welcome to the most confusing week of the year the molasses-slow limbo between Christmas and New Year’s where time bends, Slack is silent, and calendars lose all meaning. The leftovers are questionable. The inbox is quiet. Your team is half-present physically, at least and everything feels… paused.

This is Gap Week. Not quite the past. Not quite the future. Just a strange in-between where no one wants to start anything, and finishing something feels heroic. Your brain wants to reflect but also binge bad TV and eat cookies for breakfast. (No shame. I had a soft gingerbread cookie warmed over my coffee mug like a stroopwafel. Bliss.)

And maybe just maybe that’s exactly what this week is for.

Gap Week isn’t about performance. It’s about presence. It’s the space between chapters the breath between pushes where the dust finally settles. The wins. The losses. The pivots. The panic. The things you’re proud of. The things you still don’t want to talk about. All of it comes into focus if you let it.

Don’t rush the clarity. Don’t pressure yourself into having a plan. Just notice what’s been weighing on you and what no longer deserves to come with you into the new year.

If you lead a team, give them room to breathe. Now’s the time for loose ends, light training, maybe even a little laughter. This is the season of slow. Of rest. Of rebuilding.

Because January comes fast.

But right now you’re allowed to linger in the stillness and embrace the sixth day of Christmas with your six geese a-laying, five golden rings, four calling birds, and all the rest.

Just don’t ask what day it is. None of us know anymore.