How to keep a health habit through a busy season at work

Why a busy season is different from a regular busy week

A regular busy week is full, but it doesn't come with an end date. A busy season does. You can point to the date on the calendar: mid-April for tax season, the close date for year-end, the ship date for a launch, the Friday the auditors are supposed to leave. That date is the reason "I'll pick it back up when it's over" sounds like a plan. Compare it to "I'll start again when work calms down," which most people know is a guess, because there is no date attached to it.

If your schedule is busy all the time with no end in sight, the guide on why health goals fail on a busy schedule fits better. This page is about a named stretch that people treat as temporary because it has dates on it.

The end date that moves

Here is what often happens to the promised end. Tax season was supposed to ease up after mid-April, and then extensions and late client files add two more weeks. The year-end close was due Friday, and the team is still in on Tuesday cleaning up entries. The product launch slipped a week, and the week after it shipped was full of bug fixes and support tickets. Audit week ended on schedule, and then the follow-up requests took another ten days.

In each case the person paused the habit for a stretch that had a clear finish, and then the finish kept getting pushed back.

Why "I'll pick it back up when it's over" costs more than people expect

In the first week of a busy season, waiting until afterward sounds short. Six weeks is not that long. By week six or eight, though, the habit hasn't happened in a long time, the end date may have moved once already, and your evenings look different than they did before the season started. Dinner is later. There is more takeout. There is a show you put on when you get home at 9 p.m.

When the crunch does end, the next couple of weeks are often still full: catch-up work, the reviews that got pushed, the project that was waiting until after the deadline. The plan was that the habit would be there on the other side of the end date. But nothing was set up for it there. So you get home at a normal hour for the first time in two months, and you still don't walk, because the walk hasn't been part of your evening since the season started.

This happens to a lot of people in tax season, close, launch weeks, and audit stretches. It isn't a mistake anyone makes on purpose. Waiting made sense on the day you decided it. It's also different from getting back on track after one busy week, which is about a single week that is already over. This page is about a stretch of several weeks while you are still in it.

What this usually looks like during the crunch

Here is what this looks like for a few people. An accountant walked every weeknight at 6. In January she decided to stop until after mid-April. By early March she hadn't walked once, and the partners were already talking about extensions, so mid-April wasn't looking very solid.

A man on a year-end close team told himself he would go back to his Tuesday class "after Friday." Then it was "after we clean up next week." He missed three weeks of the class.

A product manager stopped going to the gym for a six-week launch. The ship date moved twice. Two weeks after the launch finally went out, he still wasn't going, because support tickets were taking up his evenings.

An auditor's busy stretch was supposed to be one month and ran to six weeks. She kept paying for the gym the whole time and went twice.

A retail manager's peak season runs from mid-November to early January. He planned to start his morning walk again in January, and spent the first two weeks of January on returns and fixing the staff schedule instead.

A salesperson in a big quarter said "after this deal closes." Then the next deal started.

Nobody in these examples decided to give up the habit for good. They paused it for a stretch with a name and a date, and the stretch didn't end cleanly enough for the habit to pick up again on its own.

Why short workout plans, meal prep, and "non-negotiable meetings" don't fix this

Most of the public advice for staying healthy during a busy season is a shorter workout plan, meal prep for long office days, sleep and hydration tips, articles about burnout and self-care, advice to put the gym on your calendar like a meeting you can't skip, and a plan to start again after the season is over.

That advice mostly assumes you are still trying to do the habit during the crunch and you need an easier way to do it. A lot of people in a busy season have already decided not to do the habit until it's over. A shorter workout still needs a time in the day, and someone who has chosen to wait isn't looking for a shorter workout. Advice to start again after the season skips over the part where the end date moves and the weeks after it are still busy.

None of that advice is bad. It answers a different question than the one most people in this spot have.

What to think about while the crunch is still on the calendar

Here are some plain questions to ask about your own busy season. They are for thinking about. They are not a procedure, a checklist, or a template.

• What end date am I waiting for, and has that date already moved once?
• When I say "after busy season," what does the first week after that date usually look like in my job? Is it actually clear, or is it still busy?
• Last busy season, how long after the promised end did the habit come back? Did it come back at all?
• Is the habit on hold because there is truly no open time, or because I already decided to wait?
• If the end date moves by two weeks, am I pausing for those two weeks too, without picking a new end?
• Are my evenings during this stretch turning into a routine (a later dinner, the drive, a show) that will still be there when the crunch ends, without the habit in it?

A busy season is a time when the plan to wait until it's over is worth a hard look, because the dates are usually less firm than they seem, and the habit won't restart by itself on the other side. This page does not lay out how to keep the habit going during the stretch. That part is what practical time management around one practice is for.

How this differs from nearby Healthy & Awake guides

This page is about keeping one health habit through a known busy season at work, when the plan is to wait until a named end date and that plan tends to run long. Nearby pages answer different questions.

• Why health goals fail on a busy schedule is about a schedule that is busy all the time with no known end, where the goal never got a real place in the week. A busy season has dates people can point to.
• Keeping healthy habits when you start a new job is about a new employer and a workday you don't know yet. In a busy season you usually know the job well. The hours get longer for a named stretch, and the plan has an end date written on it.
• Keeping healthy habits during the holidays is about evenings and weekends filling up with other people's parties and family plans. This page stays on the work crunch itself: the late nights, the Saturday at the office, the close week.
• Getting back on track after a busy week is about returning after one bad week that is already over.
• Prioritizing health on a busy schedule is about one hour where the walk and one other thing need the same time.
• Making time for health on a full workday is about finding room in a packed workday you already know well.
• When meetings keep deleting your health plan is about meetings landing on a health block in a calendar you already know.

How do I keep a health habit through a busy season at work?

A busy season has a start and a promised end, so putting the habit on hold until afterward sounds like a short pause. Keeping it starts with seeing that the end date tends to move, the weeks after are usually still busy, and nothing is set up for the habit to come back to when the dates finally pass. Think about the stretch while it is still on the calendar, instead of treating the pause as automatic.

How is a busy season different from a general busy schedule?

A general busy schedule has no known end date. A busy season has dates you can point to, like mid-April, the close date, or the ship date, which is why waiting until afterward sounds like a plan. Those dates are usually less firm than they look.

When is practical time-management support worth considering?

When you already know what to do for your health and the problem is that one practice loses its place every time a known work crunch hits, practical time management around that one practice is a different kind of help than a short workout plan or a plan to start over after the season.

Where Healthy & Awake Time Management fits

Healthy & Awake Time Management is a $47 practical time-management course for working adults who already know what to do for their health and lose one practice when a busy season hits, including tax season, year-end close, a launch, or an audit stretch. It is educational time management around health. It is not medical care, career coaching, a nutrition plan, a burnout program, or a reset for after the season. One payment includes lifetime access on the current offer, and the current offer comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. It will not make busy season shorter or the hours lighter.

Also related: Why health goals fail on a busy schedule and Keeping healthy habits when you start a new job. Back to Healthy & Awake.