If you’re reading this while half-watching something on TV, or while the kettle boils, or during a “quick five minutes” that you carved out of Christmas Day… I see you.
Makers don’t really switch off. Not fully. And especially not at Christmas.
You might be physically present with your family, sitting on the sofa, supposedly watching a movie. But mentally? You’ve got about fifteen browser tabs open in the back of your head.
That order you need to follow up on. The thing you forgot to post before Christmas. The vague sense that you should be doing something to keep things ticking over. The half-formed idea for January that you’re scared you’ll forget if you don’t write it down right now.
Even when you’re “resting,” your brain is quietly keeping track of everything you’ve paused. And that’s exhausting in its own way.
The guilt spiral is real
Here’s what I see happening to makers at this time of year, and I’d be surprised if at least one of these doesn’t sound familiar.
There’s guilt about being away from your business. Even though you know you need a break, there’s a little voice whispering that everyone else is probably getting ahead while you’re eating mince pies.
There’s guilt if you do sneak off to do a bit of work. Maybe you check your emails or post something quickly, and then you feel bad for stepping away from your family.
There’s guilt if Christmas doesn’t feel as magical as you think it should. Maybe you’re too tired to enjoy it properly. Maybe the enforced togetherness is a bit much. Maybe you just want to sit quietly in a dark room for an hour without anyone asking you anything.
And underneath all of that, there’s often a deeper fear. The fear that if you truly let go, even for a few days, you’ll lose your momentum. You’ll forget what you were doing. You’ll come back in January and have to start from scratch.
So you don’t fully rest. You keep those tabs open, just in case.
Why makers struggle to truly switch off
Handmade business owners care so much about their businesses that it’s really hard to turn off.
That’s not a flaw. It’s actually one of the best things about running your own business. You care. You’re invested. This isn’t just a job for you.
But that same care can make rest feel dangerous.
“If I rest, I’ll fall behind. If I stop, I’ll forget what I’m doing. I won’t be able to keep my place and come back to my work. I’ll lose all of the momentum I worked so hard for.”
Sound familiar?
That fear leads people to work literally until they drop. Or, more commonly, it leads to this half-resting state where you’re never quite working and never quite relaxing.
You’re just… there.
Tired but wired. Present but distracted.
And the irony is that this kind of non-rest doesn’t actually protect your momentum. It just makes you more exhausted, more scattered, and more likely to hit January already running on empty.
If you haven’t done your end-of-year review yet, now might be a good time.
That might sound counterintuitive – but hear me out.
Taking a few minutes to write down where you are, what worked, and what didn’t gives you something to come back to. It closes some of those mental tabs. And it gives you a placeholder that can remind you what was pending, once you pick things up again in January.
And if a full review just sounds like way too much right now, I’ve got a simple checklist that will help you capture the important stuff in just a few minutes. Click here to grab the Year End Review Checklist for Makers and Artists
You can pop on The Snowman and the Snowdog, or The Wrong Trousers to keep everyone busy, and get it done in just 30 minutes.
Momentum isn’t what you think it is
Here’s the thing about momentum: it doesn’t come from being constantly “on”
You don’t lose your place just because you took a little bit of time off. You lose your place when you don’t have a clear record of where you were and what matters next.
Think about it this way. If you close your laptop mid-task and walk away for three days, what makes the difference when you come back?
It’s not whether you thought about work the whole time you were away. It’s whether you left yourself a clear note about what you were doing and what comes next.
The makers who bounce back quickly in January aren’t the ones who worked through Christmas. They’re the ones who captured the “state of affairs” in their business before they stepped away.
They know what they were working on. They know what they’re not doing. They’ve already decided what to work on first when they get back.
That’s the difference between resting-but-anxious and real rest.
Decisions act as placeholders
One of the most useful things you can do before you take a break (or even right now, in the middle of one) is to make a few small decisions and write them down.
What were you working on? What’s the next step when you come back? What have you decided to stop doing? What’s the one thing you want to do differently in January?
It doesn’t need to be particularly in depth. You just need enough of a placeholder that your brain stops trying to hold everything at once.
This is why sticking to just “three decisions” works so well. It’s not overwhelming. It doesn’t require a lot of time and it doesn’t take much energy.
It just allows you to close some of the open tabs.
January planning is so much harder when you didn’t take a break
Here’s something I’ve noticed over the years: the makers who crash hardest in January are usually the ones who never really stopped in December.
They kept pushing until the last moment and then went straight into worrying about whether to do a January sale, all while prepping a full Christmas dinner and hand making everyone’s gifts.
And by the time January arrives and everyone else is setting goals and making plans, they’re completely depleted.
They don’t have the energy to think strategically. They don’t have the headspace to make good decisions. So they either force themselves through a planning session they can’t sustain, or they skip it entirely and spend the next few months winging it.
Neither of those options are good.
January planning is hard for us, no matter what. We’re all tired. But after a real rest over the holidays, you’ll make much better decisions about 2026, and be more compassionate with yourself about what is reasonable and sustainable if you take a little longer to get back up to speed.
Permission to be tired
If you’re exhausted right now, that’s normal and understandable. It’s just the natural consequence of running a handmade business (probably single handed) through the busiest, most intense selling season of the year.
You’ve been doing A LOT. Making things, packing things, posting things, dealing with customers, managing deadlines, worrying about whether it was all going to work out.
Of course you’re tired. Of course you’re dragging a little, while everyone else is full of festive cheer.
You don’t need to feel guilty about that. You don’t need to push yourself to do better. You need to rest.
And you can rest without losing everything. I promise.
You’ll come back to it. And when you do, it’ll still be there.
Click here to grab the Year End Review Checklist for Makers and Artists and use it to close the tabs and let your brain stop trying to hold it all.
And if even this feels like too much right now, that’s fine. Bookmark it. Come back to it when you’ve got a quiet half hour and a cup of tea.
You’ve got this.
See you in January.
Want a more peaceful way to do January goals?
On January 13th 2026, I’m hosting a one day live online workshop to help you work on your 2026 goals in a way specifically designed for the needs of makers and small creative businesses.
Because, to be honest, although we’re not at our best in January, it IS a good time to set goals. We just need to do it differently.
Gentler. Less shouty. More flexible.
I’ve been helping makers to do goals differently for over 10 years and I understand where the wheels usually come off. This is my process for setting yourself up for a great year even when you’re exhausted. And even when goals haven’t worked for you in the past.
Find out more here
