You know it’s mid-December when the drama from last week’s holiday party replaces the weather-related small talk (5x the normal speed, see what we mean?) and your boss signs off before lunch.

It’s tempting to follow suit and watch Elf while toggling your mouse to stay green on Slack, but there’s one more thing we all have to do first: a 2023 wrap-up.

Even a few hours spent buttoning up the year can make those first days in January less jarring. Future You says thanks.

Here are our two main tips to prepare for the new year:

Tie up loose ends. Opening your work laptop on January 2 and seeing a laundry list of to-dos is a good way to start 2024 stressed and busy. Set yourself up for a smooth January by doing at least a few of these:

• Following up with teammates on in-the-works deliverables you’ve helped with but aren’t running point on
• Closing out any nearly complete projects, in addition to finishing any stuff that has an EOY due date
• Plugging through lingering admin tasks, like billing or retirement account updates that need to be done before 2024
• Bonus points: responding to any emails languishing at the bottom of your inbox (and then relishing in the satisfaction of putting the ball in someone else’s court)

Reflect on your 2023. We’re big fans of the idea that growth = experience + reflection. You’ve already done the hardest part (doing your job all year long), so now it’s time to look back on how things went. Plus, this can also act as the base info for your upcoming performance review.

Here are three questions you can ask yourself to jump-start your reflection:

1. What were the top three biggest projects I completed this year and what were my contributions in each?
2. What was the biggest win I accomplished this year and how did it impact the team?
3. What could I have changed to make my year 10% better?

Wrapping up loose ends and reflecting on the year at large before you clock out for the holidays means you’ll be way ahead of all those “just circling back” emails hitting your inbox in January.—KL

What’s better than zipping up your suitcase without someone having to sit on it? The on-demand Strategic Planning course in Morning Brew Learning’s All Access membership.

This Sprint helps you clarify your business strategy and focus on what really matters. Walk away with your next quarter planned out. Join the course in All Access here.

“Hold the fries” isn’t usually a good thing. But that’s what McDonald’s is up to with CosMc’s, its new pilot store that will focus on specialty drinks and snacks over Big Macs and McNuggets.

• The first store opened near Chicago last week, with roughly 10 more on the docket by the end of next year.

McDonald’s knows its jam—it has breakfast, lunch, and dinner on lock—so why branch out into Tropical Spiceade and S’mores Cold Brew?

Because the Happy Meal franchise wants to solve “the 3pm slump,” aka the gap between mealtimes when sales go down because most people don’t want a quarter pound of ground beef sitting in their stomach right before dinner. CosMc’s focus on pick-me-up drinks and lil bites will hopefully fix that issue.

Like Mickey D’s, most people also have a “3pm problem” at work—a specific area where your normal strengths fall short. Here’s how to figure out what yours even is:

Identify your strengths at work. These are the areas that energize you—where you’re confident and you excel professionally.

• For example: One of Kaila’s strengths is that she’s a great communicator, both verbally and written.

Zoom in on the specifics of your competitive advantage. A competitive advantage takes your strengths and applies them to the right contexts that make you especially dangerous.

• In the same example, let’s say Kaila’s competitive advantage is writing long-form reports. She pays close attention to detail and can take nuanced concepts and transform them into clear writing.

Compare your competitive advantage across different contexts. The goal here is to identify the areas where your competitive advantage is no longer applicable within your larger skill set.

• Kaila’s great, nuanced writing can take her pretty far, but it’s much less useful when applied to marketing campaigns, where punched-up phrases and quick sound bites are more effective.
• Copywriting is Kaila’s 3pm problem.

Once you’ve figured out what your 3pm problem is, then you can start to solve it. And who knows? Maybe the solution is a Churro Frappé with extra whipped cream.

Working in a messy spreadsheet is the adult equivalent of stuffing a year’s worth of handouts into the front pocket of your Language Arts binder.

So we’re partnering with Miss Excel to offer a FREE workshop on Excel optimization and data cleaning. In just 60 minutes, you’ll learn tips and tricks so that you don’t have to spend hours agonizing over filters and functions anymore.

The workshop is tomorrow, December 13, at 12pm ET. But if you can’t make it, you’ll also get access to a 48-hour replay when you register.

Sign up for the free workshop here.

Less than two weeks until winter break. You walk up to your desk and see a package placed gently on top of the papers and old receipts. It has a bow on top. In swooping cursive: Happy holidays and best wishes! —Susan. You haven’t gotten Susan anything. You barely know Susan.

Don’t let this happen to you. Here are a few gift ideas for your coworkers, your team, or even your boss (if that’s the kind of thing you really want to do).

Stay classy with print. The worst part about magazine subscriptions is also the best part: They don’t arrive for months by design. No worries about express shipping before the holidays. You can’t go wrong with Nat Geo ($30), Bon Appetit ($19.99), or Poetry mag ($35) for former English majors.

Cut the cord. Cables, cables everywhere and not a one fits a USB-C. Skip ’em entirely with Morning Brew’s Excel tips wireless charging stand ($25).

Light it up. There’s no one on Earth who can’t either use a candle or regift a candle. Try the woods one from Sydney Hale ($34)—or make a statement with a candle that smells like Froot Loops ($32).

Leave it in their hands. Platforms like Goody curate gifts from different vendors like Levain Bakery and Brooklinen, leaving the actual gift-picking to recipients. All you have to do is provide a price range (which they don’t see) and their email address.

Go beyond things. Make a donation to a cause you know your teammate is passionate about.