This post contains affiliate links meaning that, at no additional cost to you, I make a small commission if you purchase through my links. For additional information, visit my affiliate disclosure. A 22-step guide to the ultimate reset day for when you are feeling like you need to hit the reset button on life. This post covers how to reset all areas of life your mental and physical health, your space, and your motivation. Let’s hit that life reset button together. We all go through times where we feel burnt out, exhausted, unmotivated, and worn out. That is a part of being human. If you are not taking the proper steps to incorporate rest and relaxation into your everyday life which most of us do not, you are undoubtedly going to feel the effects. This has been happening to me quite often lately. I’ve been juggling being a full-time college student although I’m finishing my LAST quarter – YAY!, working three jobs, having a social life, caring for my puppy, working out, and trying to take care of myself. It’s a lot to juggle. During this, I would give myself the false sense of a “reset” by doing seemingly relaxing things. For example, I would take one “self-care shower” or sleep in for an extra hour and expect everything to be reset and fixed. Needless to say, that didn’t make me feel refreshed. Unfortunately, I’ve really felt the effects of this lately. I’ve been losing motivation, having NO energy, overeating stress!, not drinking enough water, feeling sick, waking up bloated, acting cranky, not sleeping through the night… the list goes on and on. No doubt, these are all signs of overworking. I knew what needed to be done. I needed a full reset day to get back on track to feeling like myself again. Here are the steps I took to reset my life… When building a reset day routine, it’s important to acknowledge the areas of your life that need some extra TLC. Most often, I find that my mental health, physical health, environment, and motivation are the four main areas that need to be reset. Here are some of the best ideas for how you can tend to each of those areas. Reset Your Mental Health 5 Steps for a Mental Health Reset Day Let’s kick off our reset day routine with some ways to reset your mind and mental health. Our mental health impacts nearly every area of our lives. It is incredibly essential that we care for it. I believe that our mental health is one of the most important areas of our life. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the areas that get overlooked the most. If you have been struggling mentally, take these steps to prompt a mental health reset. 1. Journal The first thing I do when I need to reset my life is a journal check-in with myself. When journaling, it can be easier to uncover emotions, issues, and unmet needs. {REALTED POST 80 Journal Prompts for Self-Discovery} As someone who loves to write, journaling is one of the best ways for me to express myself. Often, when I’m pursuing a reset day, that means I haven’t been tending to myself as I should. Because of this, I typically have a lot to write about. Once I sit down with my journal, the thoughts tend to flow from my pen effortlessly. Before I know it, I have pages of deep thoughts and emotions that I can then reflect on. This is a great way to gain insight into what you are feeling and where you need to focus your attention. Unmet needs will present themselves through difficult emotions that you can express when journaling. If you are not a huge writer, I highly recommend using a prompted journal to get your thoughts flowing. Even if it doesn’t happen as naturally for you, journaling has great benefits for your mental health. Whatever this looks like to you, take a moment at the start of your reset day to get in touch with your inner self through journaling. 2. Take Time for Yourself If you’re in need of a reset, chances are that you haven’t given yourself the opportunity to just take time for YOU in a while. This is something I am super guilty of. I’m constantly replying to work emails, answering text messages, doing something for someone else, and checking in on social media. These are all things that are okay in moderation, but what we fail to do when doing these things is take time for ourselves. If this sounds like you, it may be time to take a short break from your work and social life. Take a Break From Work If you are feeling overwhelmed, chances are good that taking a break from work is the last thing on your mind. In reality, a break from work may be the best thing for you, your mental health, and your productivity. Endless bouts of work and always feeling “on-call” leads to immense chronic stress. The fact that you are seeking out a reset day may be a sign that you need a break from work. I would recommend a day-long break to really reset your mind, but I understand that this isn’t always possible. If you genuinely feel that taking a day away will have detrimental effects, even a few hours away can have benefits. However, if possible, plan your reset day for a day that you can take that time away. Take a Break From Social Media Social media can often be misconstrued as something “fun” or “relaxing”… and it CAN be. But it can also be incredibly draining. RELATED POST 10 Negative Effects of TikTok Too much social media can negatively impact your mental health, ruin productivity, and make you feel more negative about your own life. Comparison is something that can slowly creep in and become overwhelming with too much social media. If you find yourself feeling poorly about yourself/your life while using social media, it’s a tell-tale sign that it’s time for a social media break. Try a complete day with no social media. Consider journaling how you feel before and after the break. There are usually some benefits that come from it that you wouldn’t expect. For example, I usually find that I feel more present in the moment or more confident in myself. Del tip I recommend taking a break, even if you are not directly feeling the impacts of social media. Sometimes you don’t realize it’s a problem until you take a break. 3. Do Something FUN “Something fun” looks a bit different for everybody. As a homebody, I like to find fun things to do at home. If you are someone that prefers going out, you may choose to go out with friends or hang out at a bar or restaurant. Something fun can be relaxing or eventful. To me, a self-care night is fun. I tell you this because this is in NO way intended to put pressure on you. The pressure to “have fun” is something you want to avoid entirely. If staying in your PJs all day is fun for you, do that! You know what feels right and what feels fun to YOU. Do that. This is all about prioritizing yourself. 4. Meditate Meditation is something that I used to try to master. Over and over again, I would sit and stew over becoming a “good” meditator. What I’ve learned is that meditation does not have to be perfect. In fact, imperfection is quite beautiful in a meditation practice. Learning how to meditate is something I recommend everyone do. I was a skeptic at first. Meditation sounded painfully unproductive and, quite honestly, boring. I now know that I just did not fully understand meditation. It doesn’t have to be long periods of deep introspection and silence. It can simply be 10 minutes of deep breathing and tuning in to your body and the present moment. I highly recommend utilizing YouTube guided meditation videos or the Headspace app. Headspace is a great resource for nighttime meditation. I often fall asleep to it. Meditation has many incredible benefits, such as reducing stress improving self-awareness increasing patience improved mental health reduced negative emotions I find that utilizing meditation at the start of a reset day helps me reduce my stress enough to focus on caring for myself. It’s a great way to start your day with self-awareness and presence. 5. Gratitude Journal Practicing gratitude can be really helpful when you feel like you need to reset your life. Oftentimes, when pursuing a life reset, you have negative thoughts and emotions surrounding your current life situation, READ A to Z Gratitude 300+ Gratitude List Ideas While these feelings are incredibly valid, gratitude journaling can be a great way to bring up some of the positives in your life as well. When having a reset day, it’s important that you get back in touch with the things you love about your life. Life has a lot of great things to offer, but when we are burnt out and overwhelmed, they tend to go unrecognized and underappreciated. Even just taking 5 minutes or so to make a list of some of the things you are grateful for can be an effective way to jumpstart a mental health reset after a period of negativity. Reset Your Physical Health 8 Steps for a Physical Reset Set When you feel overwhelmed, stressed, and in need of a life reset, it can be easy to let your physical health slip. When I feel this way personally, I notice my sleep, eating, and exercise habits shift drastically. But your physical health plays a key role in your everyday life. All areas of your life are impacted by your health. Whether you are aware of it or not, feeling physically unwell negatively impacts your mental health, productivity, and the way you view life. Your physical health and mental health are quite tightly intertwined. They really rely on one another and dictate how you feel overall. Because of this, paying attention to your physical well-being is a key part of a reset day. 1. Catch Up on Sleep Sleep is one of the most critical parts of our well-being. Unfortunately, sleep is also one of the first things we tend to compromise when stressed out. Sometimes when there is a lot on our plate, we convince ourselves that our time would be better spent working than sleeping. Sleeping is unproductive, right? There’s no time for rest when things need to be done, RIGHT? SO. NOT. RIGHT. Not getting enough sleep is one of the WORST things you can do for your productivity. A CDC study found that over 1/3 of Americans reported getting less than 6 hours of sleep while the recommended amount of sleep for an adult is 7-9 hours. Chances are good a lack of sleep affects us all in some way or another. We have all felt sleep deprived and experienced the effects of a lack of sleep. However, we still convince ourselves that working overtime and compromising sleep is “productive”. In reality, your work performance as well as many other things is harshly negatively impacted by a lack of quality sleep. The bottom line here is that we all need sleep… and lots of it. Even when you are stressed. Scratch that. Especially when you are stressed. Prioritize sleep a little extra when you are needing a reset day. Your mind, body, and health will thank you. 2. Eat Well & Eat Enough Working through lunch only to find yourself scraping the bottom of a family-sized bag of potato chips later that day? Do you find yourself taking frequent trips to the kitchen as a form of stress relief? Or maybe you tend to skip meals or forget to eat while lost in work? I’ve been there, felt that, and done that, too. Undereating, overeating, skipping meals, stress eating, comfort eating, mindless eating… all of this is super common when you are stressed and overworked. I’ve noticed a direct link between my workload and a shift in my eating habits. These eating habits are normal when you are experiencing stress… but that doesn’t mean they are good or sustainable. Whether you struggle with undereating, overeating, or irregular eating, an imbalance in your food and nutritional intake only sets you back further. As part of a reset routine, it’s important to start rebuilding good food habits. We all need a variety of nutrients to function optimally. What you eat directly affects more than just your physical health – your productivity and mental health are also impacted. RELATED POST 10 Best Afternoon Snacks for an Energy Boost Assess how you have been eating and how you feel. As part of this reset day, make a conscious effort to practice eating balanced meals and adequately fueling your body. As humans, we NEED food to function. Try to never skip meals or under-fuel your body and fill your plate with foods that make you feel great whenever you can. 3. Ice Roll Your Face This is not the most common piece of advice for a reset day, but it is definitely one of my personal favorites. As I’ve said, I’m someone that often forgoes sleep, holds on to stress, and eats a bit more processed food when I am stressed. Lack of sleep, cortisol our stress hormone, and increased sodium/sugar intake can all cause facial puffiness. Even just a day or two of heightened stress levels and I feel this. When I wake up in the morning feeling like I’ve just recovered from a major sinus infection that puffy face feeling, I know I’ve been facing increased stress. For a long time, I thought this was just normal for me. But since it was so uncomfortable, I decided to not give up looking for something to help. That’s when I found ice rolling. There are honestly tons of ice rolling benefits, but I do it mainly to reduce my puffiness and feel refreshed. There are a lot of pretty expensive ice rollers, but since I’m always looking for cheaper dupes, I ended up buying this one from Amazon. I have zero complaints. I think it works amazingly. Maybe this is silly, but I also feel like ice rolling in the morning sets me up for a day of taking care of myself. You know when you do something that just makes you feel like “that girl”… like you have it all together? That’s how I feel after ice rolling. I tend to take better care of myself for the whole day when I wake up and ice roll. 4. Limt Alcohol and Caffiene When we are overstressed, the temptation to energize with caffeine or let loose with alcohol may be heightened… but that’s not always the best choice. Not only do they play a role in the puffiness and swelling I described above, but caffeine and alcohol also affect our moods, mental health, and physical health. Some negative impacts of too much caffeine and/or alcohol include increased feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression bloating/swelling lack of sleep/decreased sleep quality weakened immune system dehydration hindered work performance/mental clarity Despite being an attempt to cope with stress, the effects of caffeine and alcohol often have an opposite effect from what we hoped. Try reducing or eliminating these from your diet for a bit and see how refreshed you feel – mentally and physically. 5. Go for a Walk Going for a walk has two main parts that are beneficial getting outside and getting moving. Both fresh air and physical activity are great ways to reset and refresh after a period of stress. I always include an outdoor walk as an essential part of my reset day routine. To be honest, any form of physical activity will benefit you on a reset day. Getting in some movement is a great way to instantly feel healthier, more energized, and rejuvenated. Fact Exercise is a natural stress reliever. Professionals often recommend exercise as a natural form of stress management. I, personally, tend to go for a gentle walk outside as my preferred form of movement for a few reasons. Firstly, if I am seeking a reset day, I know I am most likely pretty tired and worn out. A walk is a gentle form of movement that doesn’t wear me out too much. Secondly, some forms of high-intensity exercise actually increase cortisol in the body. This doesn’t mean that they are bad for you at all, but I know that my body responds better to lower-intensity exercise when I am already battling stress. I’ve found that high-intensity workouts when I am stressed can lead to even more puffiness, bloating, sleep issues, food cravings, and stress. This is speaking for myself personally. Please explore what works best for YOU. Lastly, I just LOVE outdoor walks. I always put on an inspiring Podcast or some relaxing music while I walk. This allows me to breathe in the fresh air, be present in the moment, and relieve stress. Get some movement in on your reset day, whatever that may look like for you! 6. Drink Lots of Water I don’t have a whole lot to say about this one. We all know the benefits of water. It is SO important to stay hydrated. Your mental clarity, digestion, energy, productivity, mental health, and physical health all benefit from drinking an appropriate amount of water every day. Del Tip Keep a water bottle with you at all times to encourage consistent hydration! When we’re overworked, it can be even easier to forget to take hydration breaks. Make it your mission to prioritize hydration as part of your reset routine. You will feel so much better, I promise! 7. Take a Shower Like eating, showers are another basic form of physical care that is often affected by stress and overworking. For example, when I get caught up in an unusually busy season of life, I tend to skip showers when I can and rush them when I take them. When I feel like I have things to do, my showers become very concise and to the point. This is really a shame. Taking a relaxing shower can be an amazing form of self-care. By allowing yourself extra time to care for yourself, your face, your skin, and your hair, you not only get physical health benefits but mental health benefits too. Quite literally, showers are an essential form of physical care; they are an act of good hygiene. Showers help cleanse your skin from harmful bacteria and help keep you clean. Cleanliness and hygiene aside, showers are a drastically underrated form of self-care. I’ve developed a self-care shower routine that I do on every reset day. It helps me relax, care for my body, and relieve stress. 8. Stretch Stretching is another thing I try to do on my reset days. After periods of stress and tension, I can feel it in my physical body. It’s easy to ignore for a while, but once you are consciously aware of how your body holds on to stress, you may find yourself feeling stiff, sore, or uncomfortable. I hold on to a lot of stress in my jaw, neck, back, and shoulders. Without realizing it, I tense my muscles when I have high levels of stress in my body. This is super common and why I love to stretch as part of my reset. Relieving muscle tension through stretching can help you calm down, relax, and sleep better and we know how important sleep is!. Try some quick stretches for stress relief next time it’s time to reset yourself. Reset Your Environment 5 Steps for an Environment Reset Day Taking time on your reset day to focus on your environment is crucial. Your environment impacts you more than you might think. Your mental health, mood, productivity, stress levels, motivation, and actions are all things that are directly impacted by your environment. Keeping a clean and tidy space is something that can really help you feel more in control after a period of stress and overwhelm. I know that I cannot work well in a cluttered or messy space. Almost instantly I feel the mental effects that it has on me. It makes me feel even more stressed. Ironically, when I feel that stress, I’m also less motivated to tidy up and organize. So, as part of my life reset routine, I like to focus some attention on caring for my home, my space, and my environment. 1. Organize Your Desk Desk organization is so important. If my desk is messy, my entire workspace feels stressful and I most likely will not be productive there. As someone who works from home, this feels especially important. I try to do a quick tidy at the end of every workday so it never gets too out of hand but sometimes it happens. The mess builds up and my desk much like my life needs a little reset. 2. Change Your Sheets Changing my sheets is something I dread. I make it out to be so much worse in my mind than it really is and then I put it off. Ideally, you should be changing your sheets every week. I try to stick to this schedule, give or take a few days. Because of that frequency, I know that changing my sheets is almost always something productive I can do on my reset day. This helps me cross it off my to-do list for the future and feel less stressed. Not to mention, after taking my self-care shower and having a full life reset day, I need to get into clean sheets at night. It just feels so good. 3. Vacuum & Dust Two more tedious chores that can sometimes take a backseat when we’re stressed with other life responsibilities. I know I procrastinate vacuuming and dusting a lot. A freshly vacuumed and dusted home in itself feels like a form of a reset. It feels so good to look around and see clean floors and dust-free surfaces not to mention the health benefits of a clean space. Cross vacuuming and dusting off your to-do list today as part of your environment reset. 4. Do Your Laundry Don’t let that laundry pile up and overwhelm you any longer. Do a few loads of laundry today. Clear your laundry bin. Pick the clothes up off your floor. Get your favorite shirt back in circulation. There’s not much to it. It just feels good to get done. 5. Tidy Your Kitchen A clean kitchen is the BEST feeling to me. In an odd way, I find cleaning my kitchen to be therapeutic and relaxing. I love to turn on some music or a Podcast and clean. Then I get to it wash the sink, wipe the counters, tidy the pantry, scrub the stove… you know the drill. Aside from the obvious sanitary benefits, a clean kitchen has been linked to mental health benefits too. Speaking from personal experience, I feel that when my kitchen is clean I feel more in control of my environment and am WAY more likely to spend time in the kitchen. For me, this leads to healthier eating which we talked about earlier! and more homecooked meals good for the body and soul!. Take some time to reset your kitchen today. You will thank yourself for it. Reset Your Motivation 4 Steps for a Motivation Reset Day So you’ve had this relaxing, productive, and rejuvenating reset day… now what? Regaining motivation is something I always prioritize on a reset day. When we reach these points where we feel drawn to hit to reset button on life, chances are good we are facing a pretty intense case of burnout. In order to fully get the benefits of our life reset, we need can’t ignore this underlying issue we’ve burnt out, meaning we’ve become overwhelmed with stress and work and have lost motivation. So how do we regain that motivation? I have 4 things that I do at the end of a reset day to help me rebuild some motivation so I can approach the coming days with a refreshed and remotivated mind, body, environment, and soul. 1. Set New Goals Reevaluating and refreshing your goals is a great way to spark up some fresh motivation. Sometimes I will set goals and, after some time, I lose my motivation or simply forget about them. This leads me down the path of working on autopilot without being intentional or driven by any real passion. After time, it’s possible that our old goals may not feel as relevant or important to us too. That is okay! It simply means that it is time to reevaluate and set new goals. Honestly, I set new goals at the start of each new month. Even still, sometimes these goals shift and change over time. Allowing for goal progression and flexibility is important for success. Tip setting SMART goals is something I highly recommend doing. Learn about SMART goals here. After a reset day, take a moment to evaluate what led you here. What wasn’t working that made you feel in need of a life reset? Then set goals accordingly to prevent that burnout from happening in the future. 2. Prepare for the Week A good reset day should leave you feeling prepared and ready to get back into the groove of things. One of my favorite ways to do this is to set myself for a successful rest of the week. I use this as an opportunity to prep or plan anything that I may need for the week. For example, when I prepare for the week, I will Meal plan Prep quick and healthy snacks Fill my vitamin container Set a workout schedule Planning outfits Etc. There are many things I do to prepare myself for a week… I have an entire post about it that you can read here. I’ve found that by setting myself up for success now, I prevent future overwhelm and can have a much smoother, happier, and stress-free week. 3. Use a Planner/Make a To-Do List If you’ve been on my blog at all before, you know I live for my planner. It is my saving grace! RELATED POST Insanely In-Depth Sugar Paper Planner Review My brain is a bit all over the place so having my to-dos and responsibilities written down on paper is sometimes the only thing that keeps me sane. If you are busy with work and/or other responsibilities, I’m guessing you can relate. As part of your reset routine, take time to set a solid plan for the rest of your week at least – plan further ahead if you feel like it/know what to plan. Write down any important dates, deadlines, events, or responsibilities that you need to remember for the coming days. Just writing these tasks down on paper takes some of the pressure off of you and your mind. Planning benefits your mental wellness because of the comfort and peace of mind it can bring. If you stay planned and well-organized, you can better manage your time and help prevent future cases of burnout or overwhelm. 4. Plan a “Look Forward To” This is one of my favorite pieces of advice to give. Honestly, I swear this is the only way I got through college successfully. I always like to have a “look forward to”. Essentially this is something fun/relaxing/exciting to look forward to as motivation to push through a tough, busy week. I actually even write down look-forward-to’s in my planner for extra motivation. Some of my favorite look forward to’s dinner dates Bachelor/Bachelorette nights a self-care night seeing a significant other sleeping in going for a walk playing with my dog having a movie night holidays/events As you can see, these don’t have to be super big or extravagant things. It’s all about romanticizing the small things in life and finding what brings you joy often! Your look-forward-to events will likely be different than mine. That’s the beauty of it. We all enjoy different things. Customize your motivating events to your own desires and utilize as many of them as you need to build a life that feels fun and balanced! Life Reset Day Wrap Up These are the 22 key things that I like to try to fit into a reset day routine. If this feels like too much to tackle, please feel free to adjust. The absolute last thing you want to do on a reset day is overwhelming yourself more. Whether that means forgoing some of these steps or spreading them out over a few reset days, do what feels right for you. That said, I do highly recommend at least checking in on and tending to the four main categories here mental health, physical health, environment, and motivation. Those four areas tend to be where something is going wrong when we feel like we need to hit the reset button in life. Take time to at least check in with yourself and see where you feel you need to tend to most. Then, feel free to focus your reset day on those areas. All in all, your reset day is for YOU. You got this.