Guys, we made it. It’s finally the end of 2017 and no matter how you feel about the state of the industry, politics, or humanity, we’re here and we probably all need a break.

One thing that is extra hard to do in this industry is “shut off.” When I first started working in music, I couldn’t really believe that a lot of the industry shuts down for the last couple weeks of the year. Agencies close, labels get drunk and then close, radio people don’t listen to anything new, and you’ll 100% get an out of office from ANY writer in the press. Hell, even publicists take some time to shut down. The year is considered done.

Here’s the hard part: you should too.

I know! You work so hard! You can out hustle anyone! You have a new release in January! You have a tour that starts January 2nd (don’t do that, really)! It doesn’t matter. As a creative OR business person, you’ve got to take some time to let your brain catch up and start to rejuvenate. A year can take its toll whether you realize it or not. I think creatives get a lot of flack for being lazy, but honestly, the most successful ones are some of the hardest working people I know. When your brain constantly creates something out of thin air, how do you even shut that off? It’s hard. Take a walk, read a book, catch up on all of the netflix shows that everyone has watched but you, start Game of Thrones from the beginning… ANYTHING. Just get your mind into chill mode and I bet that by January 1 (or 2nd, if you partake in bubbles on NYE), that you’ll be more than ready to take on the new year.

At the very least, you need to respect that other people want to take some holiday chill time. It doesn’t mean that they don’t work hard or are lazy - it means that they want to actually have a holiday without their phone buzzing every 4 seconds. And that is more than OK. Part of the beauty of the new year is that you can come back to work alive with ideas spilling out of your brain - just itching to start kicking ass.

REASON TO IGNORE THIS ADVICE: You really want to annoy the shit out of people by asking them to listen to your new song when they are at home spending time with their family and friends baking cookies and getting drunk on eggnog (if that’s even possible).