Your (Gentle) Yearly Reset Guide

December 29, 2025

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As this is our final newsletter for 2025, we wanted to say THANK YOU — whether you’re new here, or have been part of the TFD community for years. We hope you all are enjoying a restful holiday season.

For a peak at our January & February, and what’s to come here at TFD in the new year, we’re kicking off 2026 with a free budgeting workshop (How To Use Monarch) on January 8th, we also have the final episodes of our first season of Just Getting Good coming, season 3 of Asked & Answered featuring Erin Lowry, our February workshop in partnership with Advisor.com, How To Financially Prepare For An AI-Driven Future (full details coming in the next week), and so, so much more! We’re also offering 30% off any tier for annual memberships for The Society at TFD on Patreon. Use code 2026 at checkout before 12/31/25 at 11:59pm et!

And, as always, make sure to read through the entire newsletter so you don't miss anything! Thank you for being a part of this special little corner of our community!

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By Skylar Hunyadi

That strange time between Christmas and the New Year, when no one knows what day it is, and everything feels paused, is the perfect time for a reset. It’s a natural point to reassess goals, clean up your calendar, and do some physical decluttering. But rather than abiding by rigid resolutions and mustering “New Year, New Me” energy,  I invite you to follow something far more gentle and effective.  

The gentle reset is meant to create mental and physical space in your life--to set up systems that make your life more manageable. The goal is to truly lead with mindfulness, not to force big changes or expect too much of yourself. 

Note: If you don’t have time for, particularly feel like, or abide by the “yearly reset,” I respect and encourage you to honor that. The following focuses on gentle reset tasks to start the new year on a fresh note. As we know, the pressure to be organized and have your shit together is real, so if you’re not in a place to integrate this type of content healthily, please keep scrolling to the fun stuff at the bottom. But, if you’re itching for some change and need some direction, I present to you my yearly planning crash course, a low-pressure roadmap to feel prepared going into 2026. 

But first, let me tell you about my once-toxic relationship with the “Reset.” 

As a mere millennial, I was once utterly susceptible to the self-optimization maxims of the season. It took time (and therapy) to disentangle my sense of worth from how I organized my life. After many failed attempts at unrealistic resolutions, ranging from exercise to curbing bad habits, I realized this approach wasn’t working. Frankly, it was making me feel less prepared and worse overall. Ironically, you could say that my resolution became not to have resolutions. Around 2018, a friend introduced me to a gentler approach to preparing for the new year. 

When I let go of the expectation to reinvent myself at the top of every year, I made room for small, arguably more impactful changes. For example, unsubscribing from unnecessary emails, reviewing recurring subscriptions periodically, and tidying problem areas in my home. These micro-changes added up to something far more sustainable and realistic. 

Since this shift, I’ve expanded and personalized my yearly reset to align with what’s important to me, generally falling into the following categories: Digital, Financial, Social, Environmental, and Personal. Within each, I’ve developed simple, actionable steps to choose from. 

Before you dive into each category, make sure you’re starting with a strong foundation: 

Tip #1: Break up the reset into multiple sessions. Doing it all in one day is a recipe for burnout. Break it down into a 2-4-day flow and/or into 30-45-minute sessions. With this, only choose the reset tasks that are most applicable to YOU. Don’t inundate yourself with change. 

Tip #2: Make it as chill as possible. Pair reset tasks with cozy cues (candles, tea, music, etc.), or make a social date out of it: gather with friends at a local coffee shop and support one another in whatever reset tasks are top priority. 

Tip #3: Listen to your limits and honor them. What are your signs that you’re pushing through when you should probably take a break? Give yourself permission to skip entire sections or save them for later in the month. Done-ish is more than enough. 

Tip #4: Solidify your calendar foundation. Will you be a paper-planner person this year, or are you curious to try digital? Do you like color-coding, or do you prefer a clean, cohesive look? Once you decide, take advantage of features such as automation and recurring events, especially on a digital calendar. Think birthdays, recurring bills, annual appointments, or any events that show up routinely. Setting these up now creates a reliable backbone for your schedule, so you can focus on what truly needs your attention.

Yearly Reset Roadmap 

Digital Clean-Up

• Organize loose files across devices. 

• Make a plan to unsubscribe to emails every time something junky enters your inbox. 

• Do a homescreen refresh across devices, something inspiring. 

• Back up important files onto an external hard drive. 

• Set up your 2026 calendar (birthdays, bill dates, recurring tasks, etc.). 

• Gather and make plans to donate or sell old tech. 

• Do a photo purge while passively watching a movie. 

Financial Refresh

• Review and update your budget. This means calculating your monthly take-home, accounting for bills, savings, and spending. Outline any financial goals for 2026. 

• If you work with a financial advisor, set up a check-in. 

• Create/update your subscriptions Excel sheet. This is where all your renewals are recorded and reviewed, so you’re never surprised by a charge. 

• Schedule weekly bank account check-ins (I literally have this as a task on my calendar). 

Social Planning

• Update the birthdays and holidays you celebrate on your calendar, and start jotting down ideas for gifts and celebratory events.  

• Put any known travel/possible travel on your calendar. 

• Do some PTO math to get an idea of when you can take time off this coming year. 

• Begin planning any recurring social dates with friends, such as monthly coffee dates or weekly yoga classes.

Environment Refresh 

• Identify problem areas in your home and make a plan to tackle them. Note that you don’t have to fix the problem right then and there, but you can decide when and how.

• If it’s within your budget, schedule a cleaning service for deep cleaning. 

• Make a list of urgent household needs and would-be-nice-to-haves to begin budgeting for in the new year. 

Personal Reflection 

• Choose a word of the year, or a general theme, for the next 365 days. I’m publishing an entire guide on this in my Substack newsletter at the top of January. Don’t miss it! 

• Make a metaphorical (or real!) accomplishment cake, in other words, celebrate what you are proud of this year! Where did you grow the most?

• Set up a solo or group vision boarding date to ring in 2026.

Make your own categories!

• Create your own gentle reset category. Maybe it’s related to parenting, specific career goals, or therapy. Resets should be tailored to you and feel grounding, not like a test you have to pass. Remember, this roadmap is designed to be cherry-picked from, not completed in totality. 

******

I’ll leave you to your own gentle reset with this final reminder: planning is a tool, not a moral marker. The point is to intentionally check in, assess, and change things if needed. And this practice is not beholden to January--feel free to revisit or redo sections whenever life allows. 

Happy getting your shit together! 

If you tackle only one of the categories above, which is most important to you and would help you feel 5% more supported and ready to enter 2026? 

For more from Sky, join her on Substack! Subscribe here to receive her personal essays right to your inbox. Here's her latest post. This newsletter is a cozy corner of self care, reflections, and other small pleasures. All are welcome <3

Skylar is a licensed clinical mental health counselor who talks about self-care as the foundation of a prosperous life. She has a deep love for yoga, vegetarian cooking, and religiously organizing her Google calendar. Follow her on Instagram for more self-care and mental health content or on LinkedIn for the more ~professional~ stuff.

A reminder as we head into peak ~financial goals~ season, this is what we here at TFD personally endorse and use ourselves to reach all of our financial goals!

FINANCIAL ADVISORY — Advisor.com: Dozens of people in the TFD community already trust and use Advisor! They’re one of the only financial advisory companies offering their services for a fixed, flat annual fee. Their team of advisors work for you, not commissions, and help you to achieve your financial goals through planning, investing, and more, no matter where you’re starting from.

INVESTING — Betterment: If you’ve been wanting to start investing but feel overwhelmed by where to begin, Betterment makes it super simple—even if you’re not a financial expert. With automated investing and goal-based planning tools, they’ll help you grow your money responsibly and sustainably over time. It’s a great option if you want to take control of your financial future without having to become a full-time market expert.

BUDGETING — Monarch: Our recommended Mint replacement! As we already shared in the main section of this newsletter, we highly recommend using Monarch to take the guesswork out of managing your money — use it to budget, set goals, and actually understand where your money’s going. Even better: there’s no ads, no selling your financial data to third parties, and no "premium only" upsells — just a clean, secure app that makes managing money feel way less overwhelming (and actually kinda fun?).

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