There may be a few occasions in life when you feel the day has gone completely wrong, or not to plan. And it’s likely today is one of those days. But unlike perhaps other days, you want to save this one. You want to get back on track, but you’re just not sure how to. 

Perhaps you woke up late, and everything felt rushed, or one small problem snowballed into a much bigger one. Or maybe you woke up in a bad mood, and nothing is going right. It’s a normal emotion to feel like ‘it’s only 11am and the day already feels ruined!’

The only thing that’s different this time is that it doesn’t need to stay that way. A bad start does not mean a bad day. And resetting your day is absolutely a skill you can learn. 

This post will show you simple, realistic ways that you can reset your day at any point.

Why We Feel Like a Bad Start Ruins the Whole Day

This feeling generally stems from an all-or-nothing mindset. We believe that to have a good day, every element of it needs to go perfectly, and if the start of the day is bad, then the rest of the day can’t be good. We often get feelings of ‘I’ve already messed up, so what’s the point?’ And this is so normal. Often, both negative (and luckily positive) thoughts and feelings can spiral. If things start badly and put you in a bad mood, it’s likely that the bad mood will continue to allow that downward spiral to occur. The same goes for when things are going to plan. It puts you in a good mood, and you’ll likely continue to see the day go well for you. It’s all down to mindset. 

The good news is that figuring out when things have started going wrong, being able to stop in your tracks and pivot the day into a good one is a skill that can be learned through a series of pivoting tactics. In other words, you just need to interrupt the spiral. 

Step One: Stop Trying to Catch Up

The purpose of resetting your day is to interrupt the negative pattern it’s currently in and reset from where you currently are in a more positive way. This does not mean ‘catching up’ or trying to start the day again from scratch. The bottom line is, you have less time than when you started, so trying to achieve what you set out to achieve from the start is going to create even more pressure and place unrealistic expectations on yourself.

Instead, introduce a powerful rule into your day. You are no longer trying to ‘win the day’. You’re trying to stabilise it. So, starting from where you are right now, ask yourself the following three questions:

1. What are the absolute top non-negotiables for the day?
2. What can you do right now that would make the next 1-2 hours easier?
3. Thinking about your initial plans for the day, what 1-2 things now feel unrealistic and can be completed on another day?

Step Two: Do a Physical Reset First

Physical resets often work faster than mental ones. Sometimes we need action first to allow feelings to follow, and getting yourself feeling physically ‘neutral’ is going to allow you to calm your nervous system and make better decisions moving forward. This isn’t about productivity. 

Some examples of things you can do in your physical reset are:

• Drinking a full glass of water
• Stepping outside for 5 minutes and getting some fresh air
• Taking a quick shower
• Putting on a clean outfit
• Stretching
• Taking 10 deep breaths

Step Three: Reset Your Environment 

Once you’ve done a physical reset, you’ll be ready to reset your space next. We’ve all heard it before, and that’s because it’s true, but extra clutter in your surroundings can create more mental noise and therefore make you less productive. 

This isn’t a deep clean, but just a way to provide you with fast, low-effort results.

Looking at the key spaces around you, figure out what is stressing you out or causing you friction, and tackle it. This could look like the following:

• Clearing your desk
• Making your bed
• Loading the dishwasher
• Putting your laundry away

Just performing a few of these 5-minute tasks can set you up for a more successful day. 

Step Four: Create a Minimum Viable Day

A day doesn’t need to be perfect to be successful, and with some simple planning that takes a few minutes, you can create a new plan of action for the remainder of your day, which means that you can still feel like the day was handled well. To do this, don’t think of what’s already happened; think instead about what can happen. 

What 2-3 things would make today feel ‘handled’ to you?

Maybe responding to all of your key emails would do that, or perhaps managing to clean and tidy one or two main rooms of your home would make you feel good. Whatever your original plans were, take some key elements from them that you’re still able to achieve, and aim to get those done instead. 

Just because the day didn’t start how you expected, doesn’t mean the rest of it needs to also be thrown in the bin. 

Giving the Day a New Start Point

Commonly, we all believe the day starts when we wake up, and finishes when we go to sleep. But what if you could split your day into sections, and then start fresh at every reset point? This will allow you to have a psychological fresh start and means that if something is not going quite to plan, you already have a new section of your day starting soon, so you can reset and pick it up again there. 

Some examples of reset points might be:

• After lunch
• After work
• After dinner

Tell yourself mentally after your lunch finishes, ‘this is my reset’, and incorporate a little ritual which signifies the end of one cycle and the start of another. This might be a little stretch, having a bite to eat, making yourself a hot drink, or just getting some fresh air for 5 minutes. This will allow each element of your day to remain fresh and vibrant, and keep your energy positive. 

What NOT to Do When Your Day Goes Wrong

Whilst it’s easier said than done, there are some key things that are not advisable to do if you’re having ‘one of those days’. And the first thing is forcing productivity on yourself. You don’t need to ‘make up’ for what you’ve missed. You just need to pick up from where you are. But just like forcing productivity isn’t going to help, mindlessly scrolling on your phone isn’t going to help either and is just killing your dopamine levels. 

Remember, a bad start to the day doesn’t have to ruin the entire thing. Regularly practice daily resets to make them easier to incorporate into your day, and make sure to save this post to come back to it on hard days.