Ask for rec letters ASAP and ask for more than you need! My app materials were all done in November, but one of my rec letter writers didn’t submit until January and another didn’t even submit until February (I made the mistake of explaining rolling admissions and saying official deadlines are later. Don’t tell your writers this, just make up a date and say it HAS to be in by then). This delayed my apps being complete from November to January - who knows how much it impacted my cycle, and I’m still SUPER happy with how it turned out, but I would’ve been much less stressed if I’d had letters done sooner!