The Reset
A structured process for returning to baseline after a period of avoidance, overwhelm, or system collapse. Not a new productivity method—a way back into the one you already have.
PDF format · 12 pages · No email required
What The Reset is and how it works
What this is for
The Reset is not a new system. It is a process for returning to a functional state after the one you had has stopped working. This happens to everyone—often at the worst possible time, and often without a clear reason. The system that was functioning reasonably well begins to feel inaccessible. The to-do list becomes a source of dread rather than direction. Work that was manageable becomes something you actively avoid.
When this happens, the instinct is often to rebuild—to start fresh with a better system, a cleaner structure, a new approach. That instinct is usually wrong. The system did not fail because it was bad. It stalled because something upstream changed: your energy, your environment, your relationship to the work, or the clarity of what you were doing. Rebuilding before addressing those upstream conditions produces a new system with the same problems.
The Reset addresses those conditions first.
What the process undoes
The Reset works through five areas where dysfunction tends to accumulate: task clarity, open loops, environmental friction, energy debt, and the emotional weight of what has been avoided. For each area, it provides a structured audit and a specific action to reduce the load before attempting to return to normal operation.
It is deliberately limited in scope. The goal is not to optimize your system. The goal is to restore a minimum viable state from which you can begin moving forward. Optimization can happen later. The Reset is about getting from stuck to moving—nothing more, and nothing less.
What it does not do
The Reset will not motivate you. It will not give you new goals, a new identity, or a new relationship with productivity. It is not a course, a challenge, or a program. It is a practical document designed to be used once, slowly, over the course of a day or two—when you are at your lowest and need the simplest possible path back into function.
It does not require that you have a system to return to. If you are starting from scratch, the Reset provides enough structure to establish a minimal baseline. But its design assumes that what you need is not more complexity—it is less.
How to use it
Download the PDF. Read the first section before doing anything else. The process is sequential, and the order matters. Each step reduces the load for the next one. Do not skip ahead. If a section feels uncomfortable, that discomfort is usually the most important signal in the document. Work with it, not past it.
Most people complete The Reset in two to four hours, distributed across a day. Some take longer. The process is complete when you have a clear, short list of the next actions for your most important current commitments—and when those actions are small enough that you could do the first one right now, in under ten minutes, without needing to prepare.