How I Reset My Productivity After the Break
How to ACTUALLY follow through on your new year goals
Hi friends!
I hope you had an amazing holiday season (I definitely did 🥳).
I feel like I blinked, and suddenly it’s almost the end of January 2026.
Coming back from vacation, I felt recharged… and at the same time, slightly out of rhythm, trying to find my way back into a productive routine.
January is a strange month.
Some people start the year strong, full of momentum, and then struggle to follow through a few weeks in.
Others may already feel behind, guilty, or off track — like I did.
I’m finally back in my productive rhythm. 🥁
Here’s what helped me reset my productivity after the break, and might help you follow through too 😉.
1. Start with a vision
When I put together my vision board, I asked myself these questions:
Why do these goals matter to me?
What kind of person do I become if I stay exactly the same?
And… who do I become if I actually change?
There’s a framework I keep coming back to called the regret minimization formula.
Imagine yourself at 80 years old, looking back at your life, and ask: Which decision would I regret least?
That was the same question that led Jeff to leave his stable, high-paying job. From the outside, there was no reason to leave.
But as he watched the internet grow, one question kept coming back: What if I never tried?
He knew that regret would last longer than the risk.
So he took the leap, and started what would later become Amazon.
Not all bold choices lead to massive success.
But this formula often gives you the clarity you need to move forward.
2. Start with action, not emotion
Most goals die at the thinking stage.
“I want to create content… but what will people think?” 🫣
And then another year passes, with nothing changing.
Motivation is unreliable.
What works is boring daily habits, clear systems that carry you forward even on low-energy days.
If you sit there debating whether you should go to the gym, you’ll probably stay home.
But if you just put on your shoes and leave, the rest takes care of itself.
Action creates emotion. Not the other way around.
That’s why I act first, before my brain negotiates me out of it.
3. Don’t just seek inspiration. Be the inspirer.
We don’t truly learn until we can teach.
That realization is what pushed me to start creating content in the first place.
Not because I felt ready.
But because explaining ideas forced clarity, and showing up publicly forced accountability.
Teaching strengthened my thinking.
Sharing lessons forced growth.
And showing up made me braver than waiting ever did.
Sometimes the fastest way forward is becoming the person you once needed.
💭 Final Thoughts
That’s all you need to ACTUALLY follow through on your New Year goals.
Not a reinvention, just a decision to move, and make 2026 the year you finally bet on yourself. 🌱
Xoxo,
Kessie 🧚