Slow Q1? Don’t worry, here’s how to make it work for you

When we return to work after the holidays, we tend to bring renewed energy, a laundry list of annual goals, and a few aspirational New Year’s resolutions. This is the year you’re going to run the marathon. 

Though we arrive ready to hit the ground running, actual business momentum might tell a different story. I call it the Q1 paradox. We’re prepared for a flurry of activity, but in reality, we experience a slower cadence. With GDP growth typically slower in Q1, consumer and business spending may lag. Demands feel less urgent. Phones are quieter. 

As CEO of Jotform, I’ve found that the first quarter is the perfect time to lay the groundwork for the year’s success. 

Here’s how my team and I make the most of this valuable window.

Lead by example

For leaders, the first order of business is getting your team to start projecting themselves and the organization into the following 12 months. When they’ve just closed out 2025 and wrapped up year-end reports, that can be easier said than done.

While getting your team into this mindset begins with clear directives, that’s only half the equation. Modeling the behavior is just as important. Formal policies may attempt to create organizational culture and norms, but routines—the way leaders and employees actually show up and function—are just as vital. As Harvard Business Impact notes, leaders uphold and demonstrate their character through the daily habits they follow and the decisions they make. That’s why leaders must model proactive behaviors that encourage forward-thinking across the team.

At Jotform, for example, I start with a nudge in early January, sharing my objectives for the new year with the entire organization. I try to keep these big-picture, beginning with my most audacious goals, since those tend to be the ones that excite and inspire me. They keep the momentum going during inevitable lulls in motivation. Often, I’ll include a brief road map outlining how we can reach each objective. Finally, I encourage employees to reach out if they have questions or ideas. And, of course, to think about what they most want to achieve in the year ahead. 

Modeling this forward-looking behavior can help employees rise above the busywork from day one and gain much-needed perspective on where we’re headed. 

Reflect and refine your strategies

If the first step is looking forward, the second involves gazing back and taking stock of your current business strategies. In today’s fast-changing world, where AI stands to reinvent workflows at breakneck speed, this is more vital than ever.

At my company, I work with our teams to evaluate strategies, identify gaps, and determine which adjustments are needed to move toward our goals with confidence. With each department, we begin by reviewing their respective strategies and considering whether they serve our larger purpose: making users’ lives easier through automation. We then map out the processes and workflows that carry out those strategies, looking for weak spots—for example, tasks that could be accelerated through automation without sacrificing the essential human elements, such as strategic judgment and creative thinking. Finally, we ensure that each workflow within a strategy has a clear human owner to oversee decision-making and step in when issues arise.

As I’ve found, this balance of reflection, automation, and human accountability helps ensure continued progress, year after year. 

Carve out time for experimentation

If I’ve learned one thing in two decades of entrepreneurship, it’s the importance of scheduling everything. If you don’t deliberately carve out time for it, chances increase that you’ll kick it down the road. That’s why everything, including creativity, must be built into your schedule. 

When we do our first quarter strategizing, I urge our employees to create space for experimentation: to test new ideas, refine processes, tool around with new AI applications, and explore innovative approaches—without the usual time pressure.

On an organizational level, we hold demo days—where each team shares their latest ideas and projects—and regular hack weeks. These five-day creative sprints allow our product teams to laser-focus on a single idea, while completely putting aside their day-to-day to-do lists. Hack weeks have led to some of our biggest innovations, and we schedule them as soon as we return to work in January. 

With some proactive thinking, moments for reflection, and dedicated time for experimentation, the quiet first quarter can become less of a pause, and more of a launchpad for a year of meaningful progress.