Summer already feels like a distant memory and, somehow, the busiest part of the business year is here.
Q4 comes with two jobs. There is everything that still needs to be delivered, completed or sorted this year, and the planning and preparation needed to make 2027 start well.
December may still look reassuringly empty in the diary, but it is rarely a full working month. Add Christmas preparation and everything else happening outside work, and this is where the overwhelm season can quietly begin.
So, before the Jessanol news, blogs and interesting things I’ve found elsewhere, here’s one useful job you can do in ten minutes.
💡Your 10-minute business reset
Find your critical path through Q4
Remember that long list of projects you intended to complete this year?
It’s time to be a little hard on it.
Review the projects and larger jobs still sitting on your 2026 list. For each one, ask:
Is there a genuine deadline or consequence if this doesn’t happen?
Is somebody else relying on it?
Does it unlock or affect another piece of work?
Does it really need to be done by me?
What would actually happen if I moved it to 2027?
Now give each project one clear decision:
Do: it genuinely needs to happen this year.
Defer: move it to a named point in 2027.
Delegate: it matters, but it doesn’t need to be completed by you.
Drop: it no longer deserves space on the list.
For everything in the do category, identify the critical path. What needs to happen first? What depends on it? Who owns each action? What is the latest realistic date it can begin?
Try to avoid creating a fifth category called “I’ll somehow fit it in before Christmas.”
Being realistic now isn’t admitting defeat. It is protecting the work that matters most and refusing to enter December carrying every idea you had for the year.
This particular reset feels very familiar at Jessanol HQ. September has included substantial client delivery, course updates and learning materials, alongside continuing the move from Squarespace to WordPress and preparing for November’s exhibition.
There is plenty that needs to be delivered now, while I also make decisions and put systems in place for the business I want to run in 2027.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a magical week when client work pauses, the inbox goes quiet and the future receives my undivided attention. Both jobs have to happen alongside each other, in manageable pieces.
That means applying the same four decisions to my own plans. Do, defer, delegate or drop.
Not quite as satisfying as discovering an extra month before Christmas, but considerably more realistic.
A FEW THINGS WORTH SHARING:
What we’re noticing, building, and sharing this month:
✓ A realistic way to find your critical path through Q4
✓ What the right-to-work changes could mean for small businesses
✓ Deciding what to do, defer, delegate or drop
✓ Learning and business events coming up this autumn
THE SPOTLIGHT
Q4 has two jobs
The final quarter is often treated as the last opportunity to finish everything planned for the year.
Unfortunately, the business also needs to look ahead. Decisions have to be made, plans need shaping and some of the work that will matter in 2027 needs to begin before January arrives.
Trying to do both without making firm choices is how Q4 becomes an increasingly long list attached to an increasingly short calendar.
This month’s Spotlight looks at how to identify the critical path through the rest of the year: what genuinely needs to happen, what can move to 2027, what somebody else could take on and what no longer needs doing at all.
Because “I’ll somehow fit it in before Christmas” is not a particularly reliable project plan.
YOUR FREE TOOL
Not sure what you could hand over?
Knowing that you need more capacity is one thing. Deciding what somebody else could actually take on can be rather harder.
This free worksheet helps you look at the work currently sitting with you and identify what could be delegated, documented or progressed by somebody else.
You don’t need to begin with a perfectly prepared list or an immaculate handover. Start with the work that keeps being postponed, takes more of your attention than it should or simply doesn’t need your particular expertise.
One useful job moved elsewhere could create space for something that genuinely belongs on your Q4 critical path.
Links:
WHAT WE’RE SHARING
Right-to-work checks are changing
From 1 October 2026, right-to-work responsibilities are set to extend beyond traditional employment and affect some businesses using individual subcontractors, freelancers and online matching services.
This blog looks at what is changing, why assumptions about self-employed status may no longer be enough and what businesses should check before the new requirements arrive.
Employee or VA?
When a business needs more capacity, employing somebody isn’t the only option and working with a VA isn’t simply a cheaper version of the same relationship.
This blog looks at some of the practical differences, including flexibility, control, responsibility and the kind of support the business genuinely needs.
Could a fixed-price project get one job finished?
Not every business needs regular VA support. Sometimes there is one defined piece of work that needs proper ownership and completion.
A fixed-price project can provide clarity around the scope, cost and finished result, while giving both sides an opportunity to experience working together.
WHAT WE OFFER
What needs to leave your Q4 list?
Perhaps there is a document to finish, information to organise, content to pull together or a process that needs moving from somebody’s head into something the business can actually use.
If the work matters but doesn’t require your particular expertise, it may belong in the delegate category.
We can begin with one clearly defined job, agree what finished looks like and get it properly progressed or completed.
Planning support for 2027?
Some support needs are less about completing one job and more about creating reliable capacity behind the scenes.
If you already know that you don’t want to carry the same operational workload into 2027, Q4 is a good time to start discussing what could be handed over, how the work currently happens and what needs setting up first.
I have space to welcome a small number of new clients this autumn, for project-based or ongoing support.
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
Would you take an iced coffee into a job interview?
A debate has broken out over candidates, particularly Gen Z candidates, arriving at job interviews carrying an iced coffee.
Some recruiters see it as too casual or potentially distracting. Others question why somebody’s choice of drink should have any bearing on their ability to do the job.
The interesting part isn’t really the coffee. It’s the assumptions we attach to small behaviours and the unwritten rules people are somehow expected to know.
One person’s completely normal drink is another person’s evidence that the interview isn’t being taken seriously. It’s a useful reminder for candidates to consider how something might be perceived and for employers to distinguish between relevant evidence and personal preference.
Sleep isn’t only about the number of hours
At the busiest points of the year, let’s be honest, to get our to-do list done, sleep can become the place we attempt to find a few extra hours.
New research suggests that protecting our memory as we age may depend not only on how long we sleep, but on what is happening in the brain during deep sleep.
Researchers found a relationship between the buildup of a brain protein called tau, changes in how slow brain waves travel and poorer memory retention overnight.
They don’t yet know which change comes first, or whether altering sleep habits could prevent the decline, so this isn’t a miraculous new bedtime rule.
It is, however, another reminder that sleep is doing rather more useful work than simply filling the gap between two busy days.
Could a walk help you think?
I’m already fond of a walk-and-talk meeting, so this Stanford research caught my attention.
Researchers found that walking supported the kind of creative thinking involved in generating different ideas and possibilities. Interestingly, it helped whether people walked outdoors or on a treadmill, suggesting that the movement itself mattered.
Walking didn’t provide the same benefit when people needed to narrow everything down to one correct answer.
So perhaps the early brainstorm, open-ended conversation or stubborn problem deserves a walk. The detailed decision, spreadsheet or final edit can wait until you return to the desk.
WHAT’S COMING UP
25th September 2026 | Solihull
Midlands Business Network Expo
A free business exhibition bringing together around 100 exhibitors, short masterclasses and networking opportunities from across the Midlands.
I’m planning a brief visit to look around, meet a few people and gather some ideas ahead of Jessanol’s own exhibition in November.
2–6 November 2026 | Across England
Get the Nation Learning Week
Organisations across England are being encouraged to raise the profile of lifelong learning and create opportunities for people to take part.
The official planning resource includes ideas for employers, learning providers and community organisations — with plenty of scope to begin small and use something you already have.
27 November 2026 2026 | Stratford-upon-Avon
Midlands Business Network Expo
The Midlands Business Network is bringing its expo to Stratford-upon-Avon for the first time, with exhibitors, business seminars and networking throughout the day.
This time I won’t merely be looking around, Jessanol will be exhibiting.
If you’re attending, please come and say hello. You’ll be able to find out more about Jessanol’s virtual business and learning support, and see the exhibition stand I’ve been planning behind the scenes.
BEFORE YOU GO
Not everything needs rescuing before Christmas.
Q4 can create a strange sense that every plan, project and good intention from the year must now be completed at once.
It doesn’t.
Some things genuinely need doing. Some can wait for 2027. Some would be better placed with somebody else and a few have probably remained on the list long after they stopped being useful.
The difficult part isn’t understanding do, defer, delegate or drop. It’s making the decision and resisting the temptation to quietly move everything back into do.
Be realistic about the time you have left, protect the work that matters and let a few things go.
And if one of the jobs worth doing would be better placed on my list, you’re always welcome to start a conversation.
Have a good end to September,
Jane, Founder, Jessanol