It was pouring down in Manchester yesterday – the sort of torrential rain that leaves you soaked through within seconds. It was also cold, dark and dreary, exactly the sort of day on which you desperately try to avoid going outside.

My day began at 6am, venturing forth from a fresh bout of insomnia onto the internet to try and catch up with my Christmas shopping, which had been postponed these past two weeks due to reasons of familial ill health. It ended at 1am in a kebab shop, trying to console a drunken Everton Football Club fan who did not want to be consoled and clearly thought I was an idiot. It was that kind of a day.

I know at least one person who hates this time of year so much that they take the entire month of December off work and spend it sunbathing in the southern hemisphere. It’s a smart plan, if you can afford it. I like the idea of celebrating Christmas on the beach. To hell with tradition – fire up the barbeque and let’s have charcoaled shrimp with our roast potatoes and sprouts.

I take that last idea back.

What would happen to the world if we all took the month off? In parts of mainland Europe, precious little work gets done across myriad sectors through the six weeks from mid-July to the end of August, and they don’t seem to suffer too much for it. We all need to recharge our batteries at some stage, and I’d always opt for December over the Summer. At least in Summer you’re greeted in the morning by resplendent daylight and you can enjoy your commute into work without a coat. Admittedly, as a self-employed home worker, I rarely need a coat on my walk to work.

As it is, my working world is awash with 2020 planning, last minute budget sign-offs and the frantic scramble to get incomplete projects over the line before everyone downs tools and slides into their multi-day post-Christmas party hangover. There never seems to be much time within organisations to reflect on the year gone by. It’s always forward, forward, forward, plan, plan, plan. You can’t conclude a 2019 year-end review presentation with a slide that says, ‘Well done everyone – now go and put your feet up’; the 2019 slides always have to be followed by the 2020 plans.

Just as I get tired towards the end of the year, sometimes the business world gets tired too. And tired minds don’t always make the wisest decisions. Perhaps we should leave the planning until after the Christmas break and approach it on January 2nd, refreshed and full of beans (potentially full of shrimp too, if you’ve misguidedly taken me up on my suggestion).

Or perhaps I’m just full of whimsy and these are merely the nonsensical musings of my own tired mind. As you were, businesspeople; pay no attention to that eccentric Mancunian marketer – he’ll probably fall asleep soon anyhow.