Ready to have your best year yet? Why not harness the power of the new year and use the energy of the shifting years to your advantage? This is a great time to do a little reset. You can both end the year strong and start the new year empowered for great things ahead. Keep reading for my New Year Reset Guide and Checklist 2025.
How to Reset Your Life in the New Year
As one year ends and another year begins, you can sync your personal development efforts with the changing times.
- Ending the Past Year: What I personally love to do is use the closing year to both end the year strong and leave anything that doesn’t serve my highest good behind.
- Starting the New Year: And for the New Year, I love to start the year on the right foot. In my family, we say the way you spend the first day of the year can signify how the rest of the year will go.
Of course, none of this ever works completely literally. But I find the changing year to be a powerful tool for helping me be more intentional, procrastinate less, and take more action to create my dream life.
The checklists on this post will give you ideas to reset your life in the new year. I also have different schedule options for different personality types. Please tweak these lists to work best for you.
How to Use These New Year Reset Lists
All of the lists below have the same awesome New Year Reset Ideas. The difference is how they’re organized in terms of *when* to do them:
- New Year Reset: This is the full list of ALL the ideas. Use this for a general reset you can do at any time. Early bird? Get started in October! Procrastinator. Do it in January. Do you. This section contains additional tips, resources, and links for each item on the list.
- December Reset: This list contains about half of the New Year Reset list with a focus on ideas that help you end the year beautifully. Think letting go, purging, and reflecting.
- January Reset: This list contains the other half of the New Year Reset list with a focus on ideas that help you start the year strong. This creating, planning, and dreaming big.
- New Year’s Eve Reset: This list is similar to the December Reset but with the intention of doing as much as you choose on the *last* day of the year.
- New Year’s Day Reset: This list is similar to the January Reset but with the intention of doing as much as you choose on the *first* day of the year.
Since we are all so wonderfully unique, my recommendation is to choose the list that aligns best with your schedule. I also recommend tailoring the list to suit your needs since you may not want to do every single thing on the list.
Additionally, you can create your own list like the graphic I made above which I made by cherry-picking some of my favorites from all the lists.
Let’s jump into the lists!
New Year Reset Ideas and Checklist
This is the list of all of my New Year Reset ideas. You can go through this list whenever you’d like. You can work your way through this checklist in December, January, both months, or really any time of year.
As I like to say here at The Chic Life – you do you. That means I encourage you to find what works best for you. Now, for those of you saying, “But Diana, I don’t know what will work for me!” I’ve got you. Check the next couple sections for some suggestions on how to execute this New Year Reset. 😉
Here are some tips for these New Year Reset Ideas. Use these to help you complete your reset.
Reset Tip
I have TONS of resources here on The Chic Life. For many of the reset ideas, I have how-tos, journal prompts, and other help tips. Wherever I have a useful resource, I will link it. So be sure to check the links for anything you’re wanting to dig into more.
Do an end of year reflection
I’ve been doing personal development for decades now. But one of the TOP things I realized I was doing wrong that has made a huge difference is pausing to reflect. So often we’re focused on “what’s next?!” that we don’t stop to see how our past efforts have gone.
There are so many learnings you can get from evaluating the year before. You can learn where your trouble spots are so you do better next time. You can discover what goals and intentions are actually not aligned for you so you can choose better-aligned goals and intentions next time.
Click here for my End-of-Year Reflection Questions / Journal Prompts
Journal with New Year writing prompts
Conversely from the previous section, it’s also helpful to do some journaling and put thought into the year ahead. This can help get you clarity that will make your goals, intentions, and even vision board SO much more aligned and powerful.
Click here for my list of 100 Best New Year Journal Prompts
Want a more focused list? Check out my New Year Reset Journal Prompts here
Write down what you’re leaving in the past year
So often in life we carry things with us that weigh us down, make our lives harder, and in some cases even block us from realizing our dreams. There’s a big difference between giving up and letting go.
I used to think that letting go meant quitting. And I always thought, “I’m no quitter!”
But sometimes letting go isn’t quitting. Letting go is for your highest good and the good of all.
Click here for my Things to Leave Behind in the Past Year
Write down what you’re calling into the New Year
While it’s good to think about what we’re leaving behind, it can also be helpful to put attention to what new things we’d like to bring *into* the new year.
Clean
Is there anything better than enjoying your fresh start with a fresh space? Taking some time to clean your space, especially right before the New Year can be simple but incredibly liberating and empowering.
Bring positive energy into your home
Cleaning is a lot to do with what we’re getting rid of. On the other hand, it can be great to do things to bring positive energy *into* your home in the new year.
You can do things to raise your vibration, get crystals, or do anything that makes your home space feel light, high vibe, and happy.
Rest
I don’t know about you, but this has been a BUSY year for me. As I’m closing out the year, I’m going to be taking December 31st off from all forms of work so I can have a full day of rest. Restoring before the new year sounds perfect to me.
Personally, I’ll be doing a little cleaning (yes, it actually makes me feel better) and also doing a relaxing movie marathon. With cozy blankets, a snuggly corgi, and yummy snacks, of course!
Move your body
This one is here more for the New Year. I’m calling in new levels of health and wellness in the year ahead. And that means prioritizing my workouts.
I’m planning to do a yoga class on New Year’s Day to set the tone that I mean business with my health goals!
If yoga isn’t your thing, I encourage you to go with the form of movement you love. And if you haven’t found one you like yet, keep looking. I believe there are forms of movement out there for everyone. It’s all about finding the one that works best for you.
Assess your goals / intentions for the past year
In the spirit of reflection, I wanted to specifically call out reviewing your past year’s goals and intentions. I love seeing which ones I successfully met and didn’t. Because not doing them doesn’t mean I failed. Sometimes I realize that I selected goals and intentions that either weren’t aligned for me or I didn’t actually have time to do.
Assessing this helps you get clarity to set yourself up for success next time around.
Plan your goals / intentions for the New Year
Using the clarity you got from the preview reset idea, you will be better equipped to plan goals and/or intentions that are better aligned to you, your lifestyle, your values, and beyond.
De-clutter closet and donate clothes
Along the lines of cleaning, de-cluttering can be very empowering. Sometimes having too much stuff not only clogs up our closets and homes but also our energy and lives overall.
What are you holding onto that you don’t actually love and/or use? Could it be better served with someone else? Maybe it’s time to consider donating?
Create a personal re-brand Pinterest / mood board
I’m planning to do a personal re-brand in the year ahead. To get things started, I’ve created a Personal Re-Brand Pinterest board.
It’s basically a mood board for the style and energy I’m calling in with the new year.
Note the word that sums up your past year
What one word comes to mind when you think of this past year?
Choose your word of the year
This one is pretty self-explanatory since the word of the year concept is pretty popular. But basically, what one word is guiding you this year? What one word covers all of your goals, intentions, and dreams for the new year?
Choose one that makes you feel fully lit up and energized.
Stop a bad habit
What’s a not-so-healthy habit that you’d like to leave behind in the past year?
Start a good habit
What’s one new healthy habit that you’d like to start in the new year?
Enjoy fun NYE food
For my NYE movie marathon, you know I’m going to have some good snacks. I’m all about healthy living but with NO restrictions. So I have a lovely mix of fun foods and nutrient-dense foods ready to be enjoyed. Yay!
We’re all about balanced health here at The Chic Life. So enjoying fun food is more of a way of life for us. I went ahead and added this to the list since I’m actually doing this for NYE. And for each new year list I wanted a corresponding past year list item. #typeA
Enjoy healthy food (80/20)
This one is more on my New Year list. Like I said, I’m all about balanced health. But to strongly set the tone for the year ahead, I’m planning on prioritizing health-boosting foods a bit more on New Year’s Day.
Don’t worry, there will be fun foods too! 😉
Purge expired beauty products
Along the lines of cleaning and closet de-cluttering, this end of the year is a great time to purge anything we don’t need in the new year. And expired beauty products are a pretty easy one to do.
Feel free to expand this to other areas of your home as you feel called.
Do self care
Self care is always a good idea. For me, I’ll be setting the tone of my new year with self care. I really want to call in more balance with my lifestyle-health. Less work, more play. Less work, more self care. Basically less work and more things that help me be a happy human.
Click here for my 5-minute self care ideas
Go through your pantry
Similar to the beauty product purging, you may wish to go through your pantry, refrigerator, etc. and purge anything that is no longer safe to consume.
Get some nutrient dense groceries
There’s something about having a well-stocked fridge and pantry with nutrient-dense foods that makes me feel vibrant and abundant. I definitely want to start the new year with that energy and yummy, healthy foods.
Journal / think about what alignment looks like for you
I truly believe that alignment is everything. Being out of alignment is often the root cause of most of our stress and frustration. Being in alignment helps with getting into flow state, calling in your dreams with ease, manifestation success, and overall happiness.
Make a vision board
And last but not least, creating a vision board sends a powerful message to your subconscious as well as the Universe / God / your Higher Power for what you’re calling into the New Year ahead.
Vision boards are also just a ton of fun!
I have TONS of vision board resources here on my blog – from how-to’s to vision board affirmations and quotes.
Click here for my Ultimate Vision Board Guide
Click here to learn how to make a vision board on Pinterest
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December Reset + January Reset
For those of you who like to take a little more time to work through your lists, my recommendation is to break the previous list up into a December reset and a January reset.
I’ve broken the new year reset ideas into two groups by month. This was done intentionally to leverage the natural energy of each respective month.
December Reset
December Reset: for cleaning, purging, reviewing, and making space for the new year.
January Reset
January Reset: for planning, goal setting, and starting the new year with positive energy
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New Year’s Eve Reset + New Year’s Day Reset
For those of you more like me, we work better under a bit of pressure. Raise your hand if you also waited til the last minute to write your school reports? But somehow they came out better that way?
Parkinson’s Law says that work will expand to whatever timeframe you specify for it. So there’s that too.
With all that being said, if you want to go for more of a challenge and/or simply dedicate a day to each reset, consider using the last day of the year and the first day of the year for your New Year reset.
New Year’s Eve Reset
For this year, I’m finally taking a day off from TCL work to dedicate the entire day to a New Year’s Eve reset. Okay, and a Lord of the Rings movie marathon.
The last day of the year signifies the end of a season of life. And with this end, I feel like I can be more intentional with what I want to let go of and leave behind as I shift into the new year. So it’s the perfect day for me to do releasing reset activities.
New Year’s Day Reset
For my New Year’s Day, I love to start a new year doing things I love in high vibe energy. This is also the day that family considers an important day to set the tone for the rest of the year. So I like to start strong!
For my New Year’s Day reset, I will be doing my best to enter the energy of empowerment while being productive, balanced, and doing things I love that are also for my highest good.
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Summary: New Year Reset 2025
Harness the power of the changing years and use it to your advantage to create your dream life in the New Year.
There are many ways to use these lists:
- Full list: Go through the list on your own time
- December / January lists: Spend one month focused on each respective list
- NYE / NYD lists: Spend one day focused on each respective list
Note: While the new year is the focused timing for this post, I believe you can do this reset any time you’re feeling called.
The end of the year is a great time to release and let go of anything that doesn’t serve your highest good. And there’s something about being able to “leave” these things behind in the past year that just feels right. And somehow seems to make the process easier.
Conversely, the start of the year is the perfect time to call all good things into your world. The literal fresh start of the year can help give you a boost of positive energy and encouragement to make your own fresh start in life. Plan new goals, pick up some new healthy habits, and start the year on the right foot.
All of this can help create powerful positive momentum to help you live your best life this year.
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More New Year Resources
End of Year Reflection Questions / Journal Prompts
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Thank you for stopping by and checking out my post New Year Reset Guide and Checklist 2025 (Prep for Your Best Year Yet).
Comment below: Which reset idea is your favorite?