Your End of Year Reset Guide

The end of the year is almost a natural pause point – the brief period after the whirlwind of the holidays. An end of year reset is an opportunity to gain clarity and purpose before stepping into the new year.

An end of year reset is an intentional process. Take a moment to honor where you are now, celebrate how far you’ve come, and decide on the direction you want to head next.

It’s important to create the time and space for a reset, rather than waiting for a convenient time to appear. Think about how in the past year the days blurred into weeks, then months, and then suddenly another year was behind us!

Get out a notebook or journal and really take some time to reflect on the past year. The successes you achieved and things you’ve accomplished, along with mistakes made and lessons learned.

Look at the goals that you set for yourself last year and follow these prompts: Did you achieve all of them? Any of them? Why do you think that happened? What can you change in the future?

Don’t forget how many things you had to be grateful for this year either. Start writing a list and you might be surprised how long it grows.

Reflecting on the past might seem like an incredibly tedious step, and you might consider skipping it, but introspection is important for personal growth. We don’t want next year to look exactly like this past year – we want it to look even better!

Take the time to close the book on this past chapter, so you can start a new one. Leave behind the things that are no longer serving you and embrace the chance for a fresh start.

Of course you can have a fresh start at any point during the year, there’s just something magical about the ending of one year and the beginning of another.

Once you’ve closed the chapter of last year, it’s time to start designing the next one. This part of your end of year reset is about creating a clear vision for your goals and desires.

The first step is figuring out what exactly your goals and desires are. The truth is, many of us know more about what we don’t want than what we actually do want. We may all want to be healthier and happier, but what exactly does that look like for you?

One way to focus your energy is to come up with a word, phrase, or theme for the year. This should serve as an easy reminder and touchstone for the choices you make in the upcoming year.

Personal growth isn’t just something that happens – it’s cultivated. Having a plan will help you greatly. Figure out the key area, or areas, where you want your life to grow. Give yourself specific action-based goals, not outcome-based goals.

Action-based: Exercise 5 times a week

Outcome-based: Lose 25 pounds

A goal without a plan is just a wish, you greatly improve your chances of success. I go more in-depth on how to set goals for the new year in this post.

It’s tossed around so simply, but decluttering can be a complicated and even emotional process. The new year is the perfect time, however, to declutter. Leave what isn’t serving you in the past, and take what is into the future with you. For an end of year reset you want to systematically declutter each area of your life.

Start small so you don’t get overwhelmed. Instead of thinking of the entire house, focus on one room. If one room is too much focus on one corner. If one corner is still too much focus on one area or one drawer.

Clear out clothes you never wear from your wardrobe and donate or sell them. I find that if you haven’t worn something in the past year, you probably probably won’t wear it in the next. Besides clothes, also go through your accessories. That includes belts, hats, scarves and jewelry.

Clear off your desk space and make sure you only keep the essentials at hand, hide the distractions or get rid of them.

Clear off all of your flat surfaces, they just seem to accumulate things! Go through your mail and shred it, recycle it, or throw it away.

Give your kitchen a good decluttering too. It’s a great time to discard any expired goods and take note of what you have, along with what you mind need.

The bathroom can often be overlooked in decluttering. Remove expired medications and old skincare products.

Get to inbox zero, or as close as reasonably possible. Make sure you’re unsubscribing from e-mails you no longer need, that will help keeping your inbox low a be a more manageable task. Uninstall apps from your phone that you don’t use – or ones that you use a little too much. Clean up your home screen and change up your wallpapers.

Go through your photos. Going through the photos on my phone is always one of the BIGGEST tasks for me so I have a few tips. Start with screenshots and downloads. Start sorting the photos that you want to keep into relevant folders. Upload important pictures to a hard drive or your cloud.

Then go through your videos because those will be the biggest files. Delete blurry pictures, duplicates and pictures you don’t even remember taking. If you use Whatsapp – remember they save everything you receive to your phone so don’t forget to purge that folder.

If you have a desktop computer or tablet be sure to clean those too, clear the cache, empty your downloads folder, sort your files, delete what you don’t need and empty your recycling bin.

Yes this is a part of your digital space, but I felt it deserved it’s own category. Unfollow, mute, and block any content that is not making you happy to see it.

If you’re unsure about whether or not you should unfollow someone then that’s a YES – unfollow them.

You can always follow them again later. Try to do the same in your real life and distance yourself from any sort of toxic relationships. We don’t want to bring toxicity in our new year.

If all of this sounds stressful to you, don’t worry – you don’t have to do it alone! I’ve created a over 20 exclusive PDF resources to help you keep on track and make the most of your reset, and the rest of your new year. There’s a lot there to assist you with daily, monthly, and quarterly intentions, habits and goals.

All for free of course, just subscribe to get the password! Together, we’ll make this year amazing.

The end of the year reset is a process from looking back, to looking forward, and clearing up space in between. Each small step you take now helps build a foundation for the upcoming year.

You are so capable of achieving all of your goals, and this end of year reset is the perfect place to begin. Here’s to a fresh start and a new year of intentional living!