Top Tips for a 90 Day Reset

Top Tips for a 90 Day Reset

Creating a 90 day reset plan for 2025 (or any time of the year), can help you turn those hard-to-keep New Year's resolutions and goals into your reality.

No more ditching your goals on “Quitters Day” or “Blue Monday” half way through January.

A 90 day reset plan that's designed with your needs in mind, and that embraces your individual quirks, will set yourself up for success from day one.

The smaller time-frame keeps things realistic, enabling you to see real and tangible progress as you work towards your longer term goals.

Learn how to use habits and intentional action to finally reach your goals this year.

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Why a 90 Day Reset?

While many believe that it takes 21 days to create a new habit, a study carried out in 2009 shows that this isn't quite the case.

Lally, Van Jaarsveld, Potts & Wardle found that on average, it takes around 66 days for a new habit to stick, and be considered a lifestyle change. But for this new habit to become automatic, it can take anywhere between 18 – 254 days.

An article by Scientific American, also explains it nicely, and identifies where the “21 day myth” came from.

We're all different and unique individuals, and we all experience things in our own way. It therefore makes perfect sense that the variation in days is so large.

For some, certain habits may take only 21 days, but for others, it can take almost a year for the habit to become an automatic behaviour.

90 days is a great number of days to focus on for a reset. It's 26 days more than the average 66 days, it's a quarter of a year, and it can help to remove the overwhelm of looking at full 12-month targets.

If you plan to start this in January, a 90 day reset relies less on the date you being. So whether you begin on the 1st or the 10th of January, your 90 day reset can be the perfect way to kickstart your 2025!

The smaller time-frame of this approach allows you to see real progress in just 90 days. This is highly motivating, and provides you with the opportunity to learn, adjust and improve as you move forward.

Connect With Your Goal

Think about this – If you're planning a trip to somewhere new, you'll make time to map out the route, identify stops along the way, potential train changes or bus numbers etc.

In terms of working towards a specific goal, gaining clarity is your trip planning. It's where you create a roadmap or pathway that you can follow.

Take a look at this post where we delve into planning in more detail –

How to Plan your 90 Day Reset

Ensure that the goals you have are aligned, realistic and achievable. Break bigger goals down into smaller, more manageable ones.

The beauty of 90-day / quarterly goals is that you can get really specific with action steps, without overwhelming yourself.

Create a vision board, or mind-map where you can map out everything you need to focus on to achieve your goal.

Set intentions for your 90 day reset as well as goals. When you consider your values as well as your goals, you create meaning.

When times feel challenging, tapping into the ‘why' behind your goals can help keep you motivated and focused on how to move forward.

Managing New Ideas

If you're neurodivergent, especially ADHD, the dopamine hit from new and exciting things can both help and hinder your progress. Once that initial excitement of a new project fades, it's easy to lose focus. This is when shiny object syndrome can kick in, leading you to jump from one thing to another.

One way to manage this is to allocate time each week to explore new ideas. I like to use a notebook to brain-dump these ideas so they're out of my head, and I know I can revisit them later. I also love Notion for this because you can save links to websites / inspiration, which is handy if you don't come back to it for a while.

Doing this helps me avoid the impulse to act immediately, which is common with ADHD. By creating a system where I review these ideas weekly or monthly, I can assess them more objectively.

Keeping your focus on the goals you've set for the 90 day reset will ensure you'll make progress. I get how easy it is to get caught up in wanting to do it all, but by committing to the goals you've set, you'll be able to see those tangible results much sooner.

Habits: It's all About the Reps

The very unsexy truth is, progress and success isn't down to grand gestures, or a magical enlightened moment… It's in those tiny, daily repetitive steps.

Introducing and establishing new habits is a key part of a 90 day reset. By making a few subtle changes, building momentum and staying focused becomes much easier.

Start with small and manageable habits that will help you move forward. Focus on the things that will enable you to make progress with each action you take.

Once these habits become routine, you can gradually increase their intensity or duration. But remember to give yourself time between these increments to avoid feeling overwhelmed.

Create a Realistic Daily Schedule

When you plan for the week ahead, always approach this with a mindset of flexibility and realistic time management. Add in any non negotiable commitments, eg client work. Then add in your time out – your breaks. Block these out as you do your meetings.

Consider the time and energy of the tasks you're adding. Some tasks may take longer but use low energy, while others may take less time but are high energy. The key is to stagger these as much as possible, including some low energy and shorter tasks, as well as breaks to maximise your energy.

I have a time audit that you can download. In it you can keep a diary of your week and use it to monitor the actual time things take, as well as the energy they cost you.

If like me you manage chronic health and energy issues, I cannot tell you how incredibly helpful being fully aware of this is when approaching my own working practices.

Time & Energy Audit

Discover exactly where your time & energy goes with this easy to use time audit

Time Audit

Staying Focused

Create morning and evening routines to support your progress throughout the 90 day reset. These habits and routines are to help you stay focused and on track. You can schedule your day in a way that promotes productivity and fits your needs. For example, using the Pomodoro Technique.

Embrace flexible planning and working patterns to avoid feeling overwhelmed when things crop up that take you away from your work. Learn how to plan in a way that supports your energy cycles, making room for additional rest breaks where needed.

Co-working sessions can also be helpful—there's something motivating about working alongside someone else. You could also use apps like Focusmate if you don't have anyone you can co-work with.

Limit distracting activities like checking your inbox. Constantly checking your emails can sometimes lead you down a rabbit hole, costing you time and energy. A study by the University of California, Irvine found that it takes about 23 minutes to refocus after an interruption, so staying distraction-free is key.

As you make progress within the 90 day reset, you will begin to notice the benefits of introducing these new ways of working. This is where lifelong habits and behavioural change becomes more tangible.

A 90 Day Reset Plan for Success

Below I have outlined a skeleton 90 day plan to help kickstart your reset. Whether you're doing this on January 1s or September 17th – you can adapt this outline to meet your current needs and goals.

Remember that it's a living, interactive document. It's to be altered, adapted, scribbled in and covered in sticky notes!

I do recommend using pen and paper for it because I want you to use it as your daily companion. You can print it out in a journal, or simply buy a new notebook and bring your plan to life in there.

The reason why I recommend pen and paper is so that you can use those sticky notes, colour in / highlight / add or remove things. But, if you are a digital planner, then I recommend using an app like Notion.

While Google Docs / sheets is also great, Notion can be personalised and is a very responsive app where you can create pages for notes, tasks and idea dumps. You can also do all of these things and more using the free version!

Intentional Approach

Set your intentions and connect deeply with your “why.” Use the 5 Whys technique to dig deeper into your motivations. This activity can be powerful and bring to light exactly what your strongest motivators are. For example:

– “I want to launch my course”.

– Why? To create a passive income stream.

– Why? To save energy by building something that requires less ongoing attention.

– Why? To increase sales without sacrificing time.

– Why? For financial freedom and improved health.

As you can see, by the 5th reason, the motivation is much more than simply wanting to create passive income through launching an online course. Your reasons will be personal to you, and it's essential to get clear on them.

Finally, don’t treat this 90 day reset as a sprint. It’s not about achieving everything in only 90 days. It's about building a solid foundation for your long-term success.

You only need to be in competition with yourself, so focus on your own progress. If someone else reaches their goal faster, it's okay! What matters is that you’re moving forward, creating sustainable changes and building manageable momentum.

Remember, slow and gentle progress is what will make this work for you in the longer term. Step away from the boom and bust cycle of productivity, and create a better balance through embracing gentle productivity.

This is especially important for those of you who need to manage energy, but really applies to anyone who wants to escape the hustle culture.

90 Day Reset Outline

I've split this into five key phases. This is to help you gain clarity on your values, goals and visions, and move through to planning then implementing. The final phase will focus on continuing this beyond the 90 day reset, and transitioning into the next 90 day cycle.

Phase 1 – Preparation (Days 1-7)

Reflect and Set Intentions

• Identify your ‘why' using the 5-why's method.
• Reflect on past efforts, successes, and challenges.
• Set clear, personal, and meaningful goals for the next 90 days.
• Define what gentle productivity means for you. What pace feels comfortable without overwhelming yourself?

Create Your Vision

• Write down what success looks like at the end of 90 days.
• Use journaling or vision boards to visualise your big goals.
• Break down all bigger goals into smaller, more achievable steps.

Plan for Your Time and Energy

• Create a basic structure for the next 90 days. Use flexible time blocks rather than rigid schedules.
• Identify low-energy periods across the day / week / month and plan low energy tasks during those times.
• Set a weekly review session to reflect on progress, identify challenges and adapt your plan as needed.
  

Phase 2 – The Foundations (Days 8 – 30)

Start Small

• Choose one or two habits or daily actions that are aligned with your goals. Make sure they're simple and easy to integrate into your current daily routines.
• Use the Pomodoro technique, or time blocking to help you build momentum without burning out.
• Track your progress daily and weekly. This helps with consistency and helps you identify patterns.

Flexible Planning

• If you fall behind, revisit your plan and schedule. Adjust where needed, check on your priorities, and most of all, be kind to yourself.
•  Keep it flexible by swapping tasks, taking breaks when needed.
• Recognise that progress isn’t linear and look at your work and progress objectively. Focus on what you have done and what you can do next to keep moving forward.
  

Phase 3 – Build Momentum (Days 31 – 60)

Flexible Planning

• Gradually build the intensity of new habits. For example, if you've been working in 15 minute sprints, increase to 30 minutes.
• Introduce new habits once others become more automatic. Be careful to not add too much at this stage. And, if you're not ready to add additional habits, you don't have to!

Review and Adjust

• At 45, do a mid-point review. Reflect on progress made so far, and adjust goals if necessary. Please approach this with kindness and grace. Things often take longer than we think. On the other hand, if you're way ahead, now is a good time to think about how you could extend your goals.
• Add in more flexibility to allow for additional rest breaks and unexpected events. Reassess your weekly plan as needed.
• Reconnect With Your ‘Why'. At this point motivation can slip. If this is happening, reconnect with your reason why to give yourself that boost.
• Check that you are still aligned with your initial goal, and make any pivots according to your reflections.

Phase 4 – Reaching Milestones (Days 61 – 90)

Deepen Your Focus

• Use time blocking (Pomodoro) sessions to do the final push to complete tasks.
• If your goals will go beyond the 90 day reset time-frame, prioritise and focus on the tasks that will move you forward the most.
• Use co-working or buddy up with an accountability partner to keep you moving towards the finish line.
• Remove distractions when working, and follow up with downtime activities where you can completely switch off.

Phase 5 – Moving Forward (90 days and Beyond)

Celebrate and Reflect

• As you reach the end of the 90 day reset, celebrate your progress. If you didn't get as much done as you had hoped, focus on what you have been able to achieve.
• Reflect on the habits you've introduced, and assess how helpful they are, or whether some adjustments are needed.
• Review your schedule and revisit your goals. What changes could you make to improve your overall productivity?
• Reflect on lessons learned, and identify any tweaks you want to make for your next 90 day reset.

Plan for the Next 90 Day Reset Cycle

• Using your reflections from Phase 4, identify the habits, strategies and working patterns that have supported you the most, and that you want to continue with for the next 90 day reset.
• Revisit goals to identify the next steps.
• Start the process again by returning back to Phase 1 to prepare for the next cycle.

The most important thing to remember is that there is always flexibility in how you work and how you approach your goals. The 90 day reset is a great way to get clarity and build momentum.

Adapt it to meet your needs. If you generally work at a faster pace, take this into consideration. If you need to move at a more gentle pace, adapt it to meet your needs.

Whatever you use your 90 day reset for, it's about making it work for you.

There will be a journal available soon on Etsy that you can purchase and print at home. It's a 90 Day Planner that is perfect for the 90 day reset.

Tools, Resources & Support

Each post I add my favourite tools and resources, some are my own products, others are from services I use within my own business.

Sunsama – A brilliant task management that is perfect for busy and neurodiverse minds who easily find themselves overwhelmed and distracted. grab a free 2 week trial and free month!

Goal & Intention Setting Prompts – Download this free mini journal with 50 Goal & Intention Setting Prompts. Includes 7 blank journal pages + a brain dump page to get all those ideas written down!

Canva Pro – Upgrade your content design with Canva Pro. Explore the enhanced features available in Pro. Grab your free trial here.

Etsy – Are you ready to create your own online store? Etsy is a brilliant shopping platform that's used by millions. Setting up your store is simple, and when you sign up with this link we both get 40 free listings!

90 Day Planner – Brand new in store! This beautiful printable planner is perfect if you like to create your own planners. It guides you through 90 days, giving space to planning, reflecting and integrating those new habits. The beauty of it is – you can download and print it off as many times as you need!

Final Thoughts

I love the 90 day reset concept. As much as I love working towards big goals, they can be paralysing.

By embracing a 90 day approach, it makes everything feel more realistic and manageable. It also helps you to see that there is always room for flexibility and to make changes if needed.

The 90 day reset allows you to focus on building new habits and making progress towards your goals in a way that fits your energy and lifestyle.

Frequent reviews enables you to adapt and pivot as much as you need. I also love the focus on a gentle approach to goals, looking at it as a marathon and not a 90 day sprint.

If you find yourself freezing from overwhelm, the 90 day reset may be exactly what you need in your life!

Ps. Don't forget to check out the 90 day planner as well in the Quietly Conquer store.

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Meet Lynsey

Hey there! I'm Lynsey, a coach, counsellor, and mentor for low energy, introverted or low confident female coaches & small business owners. With over 5 years’ experience of running businesses, and over a decade as a tutor and trainer, I've learned the value of effective time management that energises you through working with your energy.

I've lived with chronic illness – ME/CFS since 2011 and since then I re-trained as a counsellor, and achieved a distinction for my MA in Counselling and Psychotherapy Practice; all while running 4 businesses! I want that for you as well & it is possible with the right support and pathway to success.

Improving your mindset, finding acceptance and developing a solution-focused approach to achieving your goals is my passion. Blending mental health support where needed, as well as a supportive space and methods to manage your work more effectively.

If you'd like to know more about working with me, you can email [email protected] or find me on socials (links in the menu)

Have you seen my online store Shop.QuietlyConquer? Find DFY templates, downloads & more!