With mid-November passing, it is dawning on many managers and their teams that there are now just 20 truly productive working days left before much of the world starts to shut down for the end-of-year holidays December 19.
The question on these managers' minds: "How are we going to make the most of these few remaining productive days?" Each job has a different end-of-year challenge:

• Sales usually has a quarter ending December 31, and perhaps a fiscal year, so the pressure to land a bunch of business will ramp up over the next four weeks.
  What can you do to move up the decision points before December 15 to make the holidays a bit more enjoyable?
• Oil rig workers, production line managers and other operational employees may have fixed schedules, with December operating as a standard production month.
  But nailing down holiday needs for staff should be done together to productively mesh them to make December a smoother running month.
  
• Collaborative teams in less structured environments need to figure out what can realistically be accomplished before the middle of December.
  And: What the holiday schedules are for their collaborators, suppliers and other partners? What does your team need from these people or companies before "shut down" on Friday, December 19?

Time to sit down with your team and run an honest triage on your remaining 2014 goals and objectives:

• Which need the most attention? Which need a lot of focus to hit the year's final milestones?
• Which are in good shape with continued attention?
• Which can truly be left to pick up again on January 5?
• Which are slipping into 2015 not by design, in part or in whole, and what are the hurdles or obstacles that are causing this drag on the schedule?
• What can we do to make progress to make the entry into 2015 easier?
• How will this be viewed by others? What do we need to communicate to stakeholders about our progress against goals and objectives?
• Whom do we need to enlist to help us meet our goals? How shall we involve them?

Work with your team to create an action plan that is realistic, assign tasks to the people best positioned to work hardest on them (keeping work load even!) and game plan how to attract the support you need from other people before those important people get one holiday shopping foot out the door, and cannot give you their full attention.
You are in this together.
Your very selfish goal is to make the holidays a less stressful time for everyone by making the next 20 working days highly productive.
Imaging how you would feel if your 2014 to-do list is largely cleared by December 19? What would the following two weeks be like with that much stress removed from your mind? Let's get cracking!