coming soon - sprinG/SUMMER 2025.
Sundays have a way of setting the tone. Some people spend them rushing to catch up, while others stay in bed, already feeling the weight of Monday.
But what if Sundays could be something more—restorative, intentional, and productive without feeling like a chore?
That’s where the Sunday reset routine comes in.
Instead of starting the week on your back foot, a reset helps you step into Monday with clarity, structure, and a little more calm.
At its core, it’s about tidying up your space, getting organized, checking in with yourself, and setting things up so the week ahead feels manageable.
But what exactly goes into an effective Sunday reset? And how do you actually make it stick?
Let’s walk through it.
A famous productivity expert James Clear once said, “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.”
In other words, how you spend your Sunday shapes how you show up for the rest of the week.
A simple Sunday reset gives you room to breathe, reflect, and get organized without slipping into over-scheduling or last-minute stress.
For example, you could answer the emails you’ve been side-eyeing all weekend, clear off your desk so “Monday-you” doesn’t hate you, or finally figure out what you’re eating this week.
Small actions, yes—but they add up.
When done right, a Sunday reset can help you:
🌀 Ease anxiety by avoiding Monday-morning chaos
✅ Boost productivity by getting ahead of decisions
🧠 Clear mental clutter with a clean space and structured plan
📅 Start your week feeling focused, not frazzled
The goal isn’t to overhaul your life overnight—but to make small, intentional shifts that set you up for a smoother start. Just enough so Monday doesn’t catch you off guard.
And since “just winging it” rarely works, here are six high-impact steps to help you build a Sunday reset routine that actually sticks:
How you begin your morning often shapes how the rest of your day unfolds.
A slow, intentional start helps you feel calm and grounded, rather than rushed or reactive.
When your day begins with ease, everything that follows tends to settle more smoothly.
Take Lisa, for example—a busy marketing manager. She used to sleep in and spend Sunday mornings doom-scrolling in bed. By noon, she often felt drained, anxious, and unmotivated. Once she realized how that pattern was affecting her mindset and productivity, she made a change.
Now, she starts her mornings screen-free. She takes a few minutes to practice gratitude, does some light stretching, and enjoys a nourishing breakfast.
The results?
🧘♀️ More focus
😌 Less stress
⚡️Better productivity
Sounds like a routine worth keeping.
So what’s the takeaway here? Instead of jolting awake to a blaring alarm, ease into your day. Wake up naturally if you can.
Stretch. Breathe. Set a calm intention.
These small actions gently activate your body and mind, making it easier to handle whatever the day brings.
And yes, science supports this, too. Dr. Matthew Walker, a neuroscientist and sleep researcher, emphasizes the importance of maintaining a consistent wake-up time—even on weekends. Sleeping in for hours might feel good in the moment, but it can throw off your internal rhythm and make Monday mornings more difficult.
Try waking within an hour of your usual time. You’ll feel more balanced, and your body will thank you for it.
That’s exactly where any good Sunday reset should begin: a calm, intentional morning.
But once you're up and moving—how do you keep that energy flowing? Well, here are a few grounding habits to build into your routine:
Taking 5 to 10 minutes to meditate, breathe deeply, or practice gratitude can reset your mindset for the week. Mindfulness calms your nervous system, reduces stress, and helps you stay focused and present.
Try this simple flow:
🪑 Find your seat – Sit in a comfortable, quiet space
😮💨 Breathe – Close your eyes and take slow, deep breaths
📝 Reflect – Think of (or write down) three things you're grateful for
Bonus tip: If sitting still doesn’t work for you, try journaling instead. Jot down how you want to feel this week or what you'd like to let go of. It’s a powerful way to clear your head and set a grounded tone for the days ahead.
Your body gets dehydrated overnight, which can leave you feeling sluggish and stuck in that early-morning haze. And really, you can’t call it a Sunday reset routine if you’re not actually hitting reset.
So before you reach for coffee, drink a full glass of water. Add lemon if you’re into it (for flavor, or for that metabolism boost people swear by).
Think of it like jumpstarting your engine. Hydrating first thing wakes up your system, kickstarts digestion, and helps you move into the day with more clarity and energy.
Fuel your body with a breakfast that’s rich in protein and healthy fats to help keep your energy stable throughout the day. When you start with real nourishment, you’re less likely to crash or reach for snacks out of habit.
Some solid go-to options:
🥑 Avocado toast with eggs
🍓 Greek yogurt with nuts and berries
🥤 A protein-packed smoothie with spinach, banana, and almond butter
🌱 Chia pudding with psyllium and almond milk
Take Mark, for example—a freelance writer who used to hit a wall by mid-morning. His Sundays started with a quick coffee and sugary cereal, followed by a crash that left him playing catch-up before the week even began. Once his Mondays got more demanding, he realized his Sunday reset needed a stronger foundation. So he made one simple shift: a balanced, protein-packed breakfast. The result? Mornings that feel steady, clear, and one step ahead.
Now that’s a Sunday reset done right.
If a slow, intentional morning is the foundation of a good Sunday reset routine, then decluttering your space is the structure that holds it up.
Your environment affects your mindset more than you might realize.
Research from Princeton University found that visual clutter competes for your attention, making it harder to focus and increasing stress levels. Basically, a messy space can overwhelm you before the week even begins. This is especially true for working moms, whose routines often lean toward reactive rather than restorative.
Take Sarah, for example—a remote worker who struggled to stay productive. Her desk was always cluttered with papers, half-finished to-do lists, and coffee mugs from earlier in the week. It made her feel scattered before she even started working. But when she began setting aside just 20 minutes every Sunday to tidy up, she saw an immediate difference in her focus and motivation.
The takeaway? A Sunday reset is not only about creating internal calm, but also about bringing external order to your environment. Giving even a little attention to your surroundings can shift the entire tone of your week.
Here’s where a little effort goes a long way:
Instead of attempting a full deep clean, focus on small, high-impact tasks that create a sense of order
🛏️ Bedroom – Make your bed, clear your nightstands, and put away laundry
🍽️ Kitchen – Wipe down counters, unload the dishwasher, and toss expired food
🛋️ Living Room – Fold blankets, remove clutter, and fluff the pillows
💻 Workspace – Organize papers, clear off unnecessary items, and wipe down surfaces
By tidying just a few key areas, you create a calmer space that supports the rest of your Sunday reset routine.
A clean space is not only about removing clutter, but also about creating an environment that supports calm, focus, and intention. Once your environment is tidy, take a few moments to create a sense of calm and intentionality.
Consider introducing elements that invite stillness and presence:
🕯️ Soft lighting or a candle to create warmth
🎵 Quiet background music or natural soundscapes to ease mental noise
🪴 A plant or fresh flowers to introduce a subtle sense of life and renewal
Such additions are subtle but meaningful. They signal to your mind and body that the week ahead deserves thoughtfulness, not haste. A well-composed space encourages a well-composed state of mind—both essential to a Sunday reset done with care.
Once your space is in order and your environment feels calm, shift your focus to lightly sketching out what’s ahead. Sunday offers an ideal opportunity to map things out with intention
Use a planner or digital calendar to outline the essentials:
✔️ Work tasks and deadlines
🧘 Personal goals and self-care practices
📅 Appointments, meetings, and social plans
Pro tip: Apply the two-minute rule. If a task takes less than two minutes, such as replying to an email or putting something away, complete it immediately. Small actions handled in the moment prevent unnecessary buildup and make space for what actually matters.
You’ve already set the tone with a calm morning. You’ve moved through mindfulness, hydration, nourishment, and created a sense of order in your space. So what comes next in the Sunday reset routine?
Planning ahead.
Research consistently shows that proactive planning not only reduces stress, but also strengthens focus and improves follow-through. In the context of a Sunday reset, this kind of preparation turns intention into structure and supports the version of you who shows up in the week ahead.
Here are a few areas to consider as part of your weekly preparation:
Planning your meals in advance is a simple but effective way to save time and maintain balanced nutrition throughout the week.
Start by choosing a few straightforward recipes you can cook in batches. Chop vegetables for stir-fries, roast a tray of protein for salads, or prepare quick snacks like hummus and cut vegetables.
Having meals ready ahead of time reduces decision fatigue and supports healthier choices, especially on busy days.
Real-life example: Emily, a busy teacher, used to scramble each evening to prepare dinner. After incorporating meal prep into her Sunday reset routine, she now spends just an hour organizing meals for the week. Her evenings feel smoother, and she has a greater sense of control over her health, time, and energy.
A key element of effective planning is setting clear, specific goals.
Whether personal, professional, or both, take a few minutes each Sunday to reflect and define your intentions for the week ahead.
Breaking larger objectives into smaller, actionable tasks helps maintain momentum and reduces the likelihood of overwhelm.
Goal setting brings structure, direction, and a stronger sense of purpose to your week. It also makes it easier to track progress and stay focused on what matters most. Many high-performing individuals, including top executives and entrepreneurs, credit this practice as a foundational part of their daily routines.
Examples to consider:
💼 Professional Goals: Complete a project milestone, attend a networking event, schedule key meetings
🏃 Personal Goals: Exercise three times, finish reading a book, spend meaningful time with family
💡 Expert Insight: Goal-setting expert Michael Hyatt recommends writing down your goals to enhance clarity, increase commitment, and make your intentions more actionable
Time-blocking is a simple but effective way to bring clarity to your schedule. As part of your Sunday reset, it helps you plan your week with intention by assigning focused time to specific tasks, rather than relying on an open-ended to-do list.
You might reserve mornings for deep work, afternoons for meetings, and evenings for personal time or rest. This approach allows you to stay focused on what matters and reduces the mental effort of constant decision-making.
Start with one or two key tasks each day. As it becomes more familiar, you can expand the structure to match the rhythm of your week.
Take a few moments to review your calendar for the week ahead. Identify any meetings, appointments, or social commitments that require preparation. This simple step helps you avoid surprises, manage your time more effectively, and make space for intentional rest.
Awareness of your schedule allows you to anticipate high-demand days and adjust accordingly. By dedicating time on Sunday to review what is coming, you reduce stress, improve time management, and enter the week with greater clarity and control.
After completing the earlier steps of your Sunday reset, take time to shift into a slower pace and focus on restoration.
Research from New York University shows that regular self-care practices are linked to lower stress, improved emotional regulation, and better focus. The way you care for yourself directly affects how you show up during the week.
Here are a few ways to support this process:
A warm bath or shower is one of the simplest yet most effective ways to unwind before the week begins. Beyond cleaning the body, warm water relaxes muscles and reduces stress. Adding Epsom salts or essential oils like lavender can enhance the relaxing experience.
Take John, a software developer, for example. He used to feel tense after a busy work week. Now, he treats himself to a long, warm bath every Sunday morning. While many experts recommend cold showers to energize the body, John made this warm bath part of his Sunday reset routine. It has become a ritual that helps him unwind, reduce tension, and enter the new week feeling refreshed and mentally prepared.
Self-care is about doing what makes you feel good. Use Sundays to indulge in a hobby you enjoy, whether it’s reading a book, knitting, painting, or playing an instrument. Engaging in something you love gives your mind a break from responsibilities and enhances overall well-being.
Expert insight: Psychologist Dr. Elizabeth Dunn suggests that spending time on hobbies boosts happiness by providing a sense of accomplishment and creative satisfaction.
Journaling offers a space to release tension and reflect on the week behind you, and Sunday may be the most natural time to do so. It marks a clear transition between past and future—a moment to pause, process, and reset.
This practice doesn’t need to be time-consuming. Even a few minutes to write down your thoughts, challenges, or accomplishments can bring clarity and help ease mental clutter.
You might use simple prompts such as:
🪷 What am I grateful for this week?
🧭 What do I want to carry into next week?
These small reflections create space for intention, helping you enter the week ahead with greater focus and emotional steadiness.
The body often carries the weight of the week. Light movement such as stretching, walking, or gentle yoga can help release built-up tension, improve circulation, and restore a sense of ease.
A short session of intentional movement can leave you feeling more grounded and physically refreshed. It’s a simple yet meaningful part of a Sunday reset, supporting both clarity and well-being as you prepare for the week ahead.
Did you know that 91% of people who took a break from their smartphones for just two weeks reported better focus, improved mood, and a greater sense of well-being?
A study from the University of Washington found that regular digital pauses help restore attention, reduce stress, and support long-term mental clarity.
During your Sunday reset, intentional disconnection plays a meaningful role.
After a day spent organizing, planning, and preparing, this step is about shifting your focus—from doing to simply being. It’s not necessarily about turning everything off, but about becoming more thoughtful about what you let in.
Unplugging in small, deliberate ways throughout the day helps you reconnect with yourself and your environment. It eases overstimulation and creates room for clarity to return.
Here are a few ways to approach it:
Whether it’s the start of your day or the close of it, setting clear boundaries with your devices plays a critical role in how your mind resets.
Avoid checking emails, social media, or work-related apps after a set time. This simple shift allows your focus to return inward (especially helpful if you're easing into the morning or stepping back from a long stretch of work).
If your reset includes work or planning time, setting digital limits can help you transition out of task mode and into rest. It also creates space for deeper relaxation and more restorative sleep.
Try using screen time tracking apps or simply setting a device cut-off time—morning or night—to keep yourself accountable.
Here’s a real-world example: Laura, a busy executive, used to check emails late into the night, which left her mind racing before bed. After introducing a “no screens” hour each evening, she noticed a clear improvement in her sleep. Her evenings are calmer, and her mornings feel more focused and refreshed.
As part of a well-rounded Sunday reset, taking a break from digital input can offer real mental relief. A short digital detox creates space to step back from constant notifications, decisions, and distractions.
Research has shown that ongoing screen exposure can impact focus and increase stress levels. Blue light, in particular, has been linked to disrupted sleep patterns. But the effects go beyond rest. Anthropologists and behavioral researchers have long noted how digital overstimulation can interfere with presence, reflection, and the ability to fully disengage.
Taking even 30 minutes away from your devices helps ease mental clutter and gives your mind room to reset. It’s a small shift, but one that can make the rest of your routine feel more intentional and grounded.
To slow the pace of the day and give your mind a chance to breathe, try making time for quiet moments without the usual distractions. It doesn’t need to be complicated. Instead of scrolling or reaching for a screen, go for something simple: read a few pages, put on calming music, or just sit with a cup of tea and let yourself be still.
And yes, if watching a favorite show genuinely helps you relax, that can absolutely have a place. It’s less about rules, more about intention.
Low-stimulation activities, especially ones that don’t involve screens, can help you feel more settled, ease any leftover tension, and bring your nervous system back to a calmer state. They also tend to lead to better sleep and a smoother start to the week.
When you step away from the noise and let yourself fully unwind, you make space to feel rested, grounded, and ready for whatever Monday brings.
As the final part of your Sunday reset, this step is less about disconnection and more about quiet preparation. After a day spent clearing space (physically and mentally) the focus turns toward the small choices that shape how Monday begins.
There’s no need for elaborate rituals. What matters here is intention: laying out your clothes, reviewing your schedule, or simply deciding how you want to feel when the new week arrives. These quiet acts of readiness aren’t dramatic, but they carry weight and shift you gently from closure into momentum.
Because in many ways, the reset doesn’t end on Sunday. It carries into how you choose to begin again.
So what are a few things you can do to support that transition? Here are some low-effort, high-impact actions to consider:
Taking a few minutes on Sunday evening to lay out your clothes and pack your bag for Monday can make a noticeable difference. Set aside your outfit, including shoes and accessories, so you don’t have to make decisions first thing. If you're planning to hit the gym, have your gear ready too. These small steps remove friction from your morning and help you start the day feeling organized and clear-headed.
Take Ryan, for example. A busy consultant, he used to scramble every morning trying to piece things together. Once he started preparing everything the night before, his mornings felt calmer. He no longer rushed to find things or felt overwhelmed. Instead, he woke up knowing exactly what to do—freeing up mental space to focus on what actually mattered.
Sounds like something we could all use.
Alongside your Sunday reset, this is the ideal time to sketch out the kind of morning routine you'd want to carry into the week. A consistent start to the day helps establish clarity, direction, and a bit of grounding before the demands begin stacking up.
Whether it's a quiet cup of coffee, a few minutes of stretching, or reviewing your to-do list, a routine offers structure without pressure. When you begin your day with intention—and even just one act that says I’ve got this—you’re far more likely to carry that sense of calm and focus into everything that follows.
A solid morning routine also removes a lot of the low-level decision fatigue that can cloud early hours. If you often skip or rush through it, consider using a morning routine app to help lock it in. The right tool can guide you through your favorite practices, keep you from getting distracted, and make it easier to follow through day after day.
And yes, the science backs it up. According to Hal Elrod, bestselling author and expert in habit formation, a structured morning routine not only reduces decision fatigue but also enhances productivity, mental clarity, and emotional resilience.
So the takeaway here? The way you start your day matters. And Sunday is the perfect time to decide what that looks like.
The final moments of your Sunday reset don’t need to be filled with planning or productivity. Sometimes, what’s most useful is simply doing something that brings you back into your body and into the present. That might be stepping outside for a walk, lighting a candle while tidying up, or brewing your favorite tea without multitasking.
These simple, sensory rituals help mark the close of one week and create a soft landing before the next begins. They remind your nervous system that not everything needs to be rushed or optimized. Sometimes, calm is the most strategic choice.
Research from the University of Sussex found that even short moments of mindfulness, especially those tied to familiar habits, can significantly lower stress levels and increase emotional regulation. So while it might feel minor, these pauses carry weight.
Think of it as your own quiet sendoff into the week: not a sprint, not a scramble—but a steady step forward.
A well-structured Sunday reset does more than organize your schedule—it sets the tone for clarity, calm, and consistency. When you reset with intention, you create space not just to catch up, but to step into the week ahead with greater focus and steadiness.
Each part of the routine, whether practical or reflective, contributes to a broader sense of preparedness. While the steps might vary, the overall effect is the same: a thoughtful transition from one week to the next, made with care rather than urgency.
Ultimately, what begins on Sunday carries forward. How you close one chapter shapes how you enter the next. More often than not, it’s your mornings that set the tone for everything that follows. And, if you need help making them more intentional, remember what we said earlier: one simple app can turn “I’ll try” into “I actually did it.”
That’s where Sunrise comes in. This beautifully designed morning routine app brings your favorite practices into one seamless, science-backed space. Whether you have five minutes or fifty, Sunrise helps you stay consistent and follow through, without juggling a dozen scattered tools.
At the end of the day, the real power of a Sunday reset doesn’t come from doing everything perfectly—it comes from doing it consistently, with mornings that anchor you.
Or as James Clear puts it: “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
When your reset becomes a rhythm, the shift sticks—and begins to reshape your week from the inside out. Not just a better Monday. A better week. A better you. And it all begins on Sunday.
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