I bricked social media...

According to the National Retail Federation, Americans will spend $13.5 billion on Halloween this year, and about half planned to start shopping in September or earlier. Think about that for a second… people plan costumes and candy eight weeks out.

And yet, the last nine weeks of this year? Pfft. Until recently, I hadn't done squat to prepare.

Last month, I decided I'd had enough.

Enough of the envy. Enough of the exhaustion. Enough of the outrage.

Social media was where I drew the line. No more mindless scrolling, feeding myself a steady diet of other people's anger. No more ingesting jealousy over achievements I didn't even want.

So I bricked my phone's social media. Now I can only open it from 2pm to 4pm each day. I still post and scroll, but just so much less so now.

Here's what surprised me most: the less I used it, the less I wanted to use it.

It's a bit like my old candy corn addiction. If I don't start in September, I can actually make it to Halloween before indulging in that nasty, waxy, give-it-all-to-me goodness. (Luckily, candy corn goes out of season November 1, so I'm safe another year.)

And whether it's less distraction or less candy corn, I've never been so productive. I finally updated my website to reflect my research work — something I've needed to do for (gulp) years.

Here's one thing I know to be true this week: flowers bloom where you shine the sun's light.

Where are you shining your sun's light?

Bricking my phone was a budget. Two hours a day for the scroll. Everything else was pure sunlight on the work I actually care about.

Now set that next to your calendar. We planned the candy two months out. Most of us haven't planned the next nine weeks at all.

Clocks fall back Sunday. Thanksgiving is November 26. Somewhere in there sit year-end reviews, budget season, the client who needs it "before the holidays," and an invitation to every party you'll politely regret saying yes to. Those nine weeks get spent whether or not you budget them.

High achievers are great at budgets. We budget money, headcount, and quarterly targets. Then the holidays arrive, and we treat our own time like a shared expense account, open to anyone with a calendar link.

So decide, before Saturday, where you'll shine the light.

In Limitless, I break consonance into four drivers: Calling, Connection, Contribution, and Control. You can't max out all four in nine weeks, and the people who try usually end the year with a closed Q4 and very little else. Pick one to lead.

• Calling, if you hit every target and still feel flat. That flatness is data. Figure out what it's telling you before you set bigger targets for next year.
• Connection, if the people you love got your leftovers this year. Protect the dinners. Decline the third networking party.
• Contribution, if there's one piece of work you want to finish the year proud of. Name it, and give it your mornings.
• Control, if the year happened to you. Use the quiet weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's to write 2027's terms before someone else does.

Then run every request against your choice. A yes that serves your lead C goes on the calendar. A yes that serves someone else's priorities needs a better reason than "it's the holidays."

None of this means skipping the fun. Buy the full-size candy bars. Be the house the neighborhood kids talk about. Just do it on purpose.

The retailers figured out in September that this season was worth planning for. You can figure it out by Saturday.

Not sure which C should lead? The Limitless Assessment maps where you stand across all four.

Listen in for a little Wonderhell fix

I joined Erica Anderson Rooney on the Glass Ceilings & Sticky Floors podcast, and our conversation now has its own page: "Wonderhell: Why the Success You Worked For Comes With Doubt You Did Not Expect". It has the full episode, the transcript, and the big takeaways in one place, so you can listen or read. If you are building a career or a business, I think you will get something from it.