Q4 Has Two Jobs

There is something about October 1 that makes the rest of the year suddenly feel VERY short.

Three months left. Except those three months also include Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, year-end deadlines, budgets, travel, school events, parties, family commitments, and approximately 47 things we all vaguely remember saying we would get done before the end of the year.

I love this time of year. Truly. It is also a lot.

And every year I feel the same tension heading into Q4: there is still plenty of 2026 left to execute, while my brain is already starting to wander into 2027.

I actually think that's a good thing, because Q4 has two jobs.

We still have things we want to accomplish this year. Goals we set. Work we want to finish. Things that need one more push. There is absolutely no part of me that wants to mentally call the year over on October 1.

But I also don't want to walk into January and THEN start deciding what I want the next year to look like. January comes way too fast for that.

Halloween happens, somehow it is immediately Thanksgiving, December disappears in approximately six minutes, and suddenly everyone is back at work in January with a completely full calendar.

So somewhere in all of this, we have to make a little room to look up. Not just at what still needs to get done this year, but at what this year has taught us.

That may actually be my favorite part of planning for a new year. By Q4, you know things you couldn't possibly have known when you made the plan last year.

• You know which ideas worked.
• You know which ones sounded much better in the planning meeting than they did in real life.
• You know where your team surprised you.
• You know where you're stretched too thin.
• You know which opportunities appeared that you never saw coming.
• You know what clients, audiences, donors, customers, or members are asking for more of.
• And you probably know at least a few things you are completely ready to stop doing.

That is useful information, and it should change the next plan.

I don't think the goal is to finish 2026, close the books, and then start fresh with a blank sheet of paper. 2027 should be informed by everything we're learning right now.

• What worked so well that we should double down?
• What are we doing because it still matters—and what are we doing because it has simply always been on the list?
• Where is there an opportunity we weren't ready for a year ago but might be ready for now?
• What could we build next?

And then there is the less glamorous part: some of the things we want to do next year require us to do something about them this year.

If we think we're going to need someone new on the team, that affects a budget and maybe a hiring plan. If there is something we want to launch early next year, we probably can't start thinking about it for the first time in January. If we want to grow into a new area, there is homework to do.

If something inside the organization is making everyone's jobs harder than they need to be, carrying it untouched into another year probably isn't the answer.

That's the balance I think Q4 requires: Execute and be visionary at the same time.

Keep your eyes on the goals immediately in front of you, but occasionally lift your head and look farther out.

Because the truth is, 2027 does not start on January 1. It starts now.

It starts with the things we decide to keep doing because they worked. The things we finally decide to stop doing because they didn't. The opportunities we choose to pursue. The investments we make. The people we develop. The ideas we start building before they become urgent.

We won't know exactly what next year will bring. We never do. But there is a big difference between being flexible because the world changed and being reactive because we never made a plan in the first place.

I want to head into the holidays proud of what we accomplished in 2026, excited about what is still left to do, AND increasingly clear about what we want 2027 to become.

That, to me, is the real job of Q4. Finish the year in front of you. And start building the one that's coming next.

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