For me, the answer is yes. A monthly reset didn't cure my anxiety. But it gave me something I had lost completely: a place to start.
I'm not a therapist or a doctor. I'm a woman who has lived with anxiety and overwhelm, and this is what helped me find my way back to moving forward.
The day I couldn't start
If you're the only marketer at a small business, you wear every hat. Email marketing. Graphics. Social media. Budgets. All of it, all at once, and all of it urgent at times.
On a good day, that's demanding. During a season when I was also struggling with anxiety, my brain simply stopped.
I caught myself, again and again, staring at my computer with no idea where to begin. I wasn't lazy. I wasn't unmotivated. I was frozen in time, marinating in the light of the screen, while the list in my head kept growing.
I had already tried the usual fixes. Asana. Monday. Notion. Every app felt like one more thing to manage instead of one less. And everyone gave me the same advice: just prioritize.
Here's my honest opinion on that. When your mind is overwhelmed, prioritizing isn't simple. It's exhausting. Telling an anxious brain to prioritize is like telling someone who's drowning to swim better. You need somewhere to stand first.
That's when I realized something had to change. The work wasn't going to get done by itself, and pushing harder wasn't working. So I tried thinking differently. If that frozen feeling sounds familiar, I also wrote about how to get organized when you feel mentally overwhelmed.
What a monthly reset looks like (the way I do it)
Instead of thinking about everything due this quarter and this year, I decided to focus on one month. Only one. Here's the process I still use.
- Brain dump what needs to happen this month. Write down everything you need to get done. If a long list makes you anxious, keep reading, because there's a smaller version below.
- Choose your top 3–4. From that list, pick the things that would make you feel accomplished by the end of the month. Not the most things. The most important things.
- Write them down like you're signing a contract. This is a commitment to yourself. Putting it on paper makes it real in a way a thought in your head never does.
- Break each goal into small daily actions. Give yourself no more than 2–3 small actions a day. On the hardest days, one is enough.
- Look back in the last week of the month. Notice what you finished, and be honest about what you didn't.
- Reset and begin again. Carry what matters into the next month and repeat the process.
That's it. No elaborate system. No color-coding. Just a short list of what matters and a small next step for today.
A real example: the email campaign I kept putting off
There was an email campaign I kept pushing to the back burner. It wasn't difficult work. But every time I opened it, the anxiety made the whole thing feel too big to touch. So I made finishing that campaign my goal for the month. Then I broke it into pieces small enough to do on a hard day:
- One day, I decided on the content.
- Another day, I chose the images.
- Another day, I tested it.
Each day, one piece got done. None of those steps was impressive on its own. Together, they finished something that had been sitting over my head for weeks.
The real change wasn't the email. It was the feeling of making a little progress every day and knowing I was heading in the right direction. Over time, my anxiety settled, because I was filling my days with small goals I could actually reach.
Why a month, and not just a day or a quarter?
You've probably heard that anxious people should take life one day at a time. I agree, and you still plan one day at a time here. But when you're so anxious you can't think, even one day can feel impossible to organize.
A quarter or a year is worse. When you're frozen, a 12-week plan is just one more thing that feels too big.
A month sits in the middle. It's long enough to finish something meaningful. It's short enough to see the end from where you're standing. And it connects today's tiny step to a goal that matters, so the step doesn't feel pointless. We might have different opinions about this and that's ok.
You're building a skill, not following a rule
This is the part I wish someone had told me. Getting unfrozen is something you practice, like anything else.
At first, I focused on the one thing that would make my day feel complete. Writing it down every day helped. After about a week, I noticed I could handle two things a day.
As I kept going, my anxiety eased and I got faster. Tasks I used to spread across a whole month, I could finish within a week, because I no longer needed to stretch each action so thin.
So don't measure yourself against where you want to be. Take a step back, start smaller than you think you need to, and let your capacity grow.
When you don't finish everything (because you won't)
This process isn't perfect, and neither am I.
Some months, there will be something you didn't finish. Maybe it would have taken twenty minutes, and anxiety kept you putting it off anyway. That's the moment the negative thoughts love to show up.
Here's what I do in the last week of the month, before I start being hard on myself:
- I take about three minutes to read my affirmations, before the self-criticism gets a chance to take over.
- I let myself be okay with the progress I made. Progress counts, even when it isn't complete.
- I name the unfinished goal, out loud or on paper. Giving it a name takes away some of its weight.
- I make it the first thing I accomplish next month. It doesn't become guilt that follows me. It becomes my starting point.
Unfinished goals will probably carry over. That's normal. The reset isn't about a perfect month. It's about beginning again without dragging the last one behind you.
If writing a list makes you more anxious
I want to be honest: this won't feel the same for everyone. Writing things down calmed me. For some people, seeing everything on paper can be its own kind of overwhelming.
If that's you, make the reset smaller.
Limit your brain dump to 5–10 things. Write only what comes to mind first. Don't try to capture all 25 or 50 items. The most important things almost always surface first anyway.
Aim for one completed thing a day. Choose the one task that would make today feel complete.
That doesn't mean finishing one task and doing nothing else all day. It means that, out of everything on your plate, that one thing is what lets you end the day feeling like you moved forward. Everything else is a bonus.
How this became the Starting Point Planner
The Starting Point Planner by GiftyTails was born in that exact moment: staring at the screen, with anxiety and overwhelm taking over and freezing me in place. It's designed to give you your starting point, the first step that gets you unfrozen.
It starts with a monthly reset before each new month begins. Most planners jump straight into dates and deadlines. This one gives you a gentle, structured place to exhale first.
In the reset, you get space to look back at the month behind you, clear your head with a short brain dump, and choose the few things that matter most for the month ahead. It's the same practice I described above, built right into the pages, so you don't have to remember how to do it on a hard day.
From there, a simple weekly layout with three columns (Personal, Work, and Lifestyle) helps you turn those monthly goals into small daily actions. Each week includes one affirmation. The same affirmations repeat every month, on purpose. Some things need to be said more than once before they actually land.
So, can monthly resets help with anxiety?
In my experience, yes. Not because a planner fixes anxiety, but because a monthly reset makes the overwhelm small enough to begin.
It turns "everything, all at once" into a few goals for this month. It turns a frozen afternoon into one small action for today. And it gives you a gentle way to start again when a month doesn't go as planned.
If your anxiety is constant, getting worse, or making it hard to get through daily life, please talk to a doctor or a mental health professional. A monthly reset can be a helpful tool alongside that support. It isn't meant to replace it.
If you're feeling frozen right now, try this today: write down the five things that come to mind first, and choose one. That's your starting point.
With love, from me and Leo.
A Gentle Note: This post is based on my personal experience and opinions. I am not a doctor, therapist, or licensed mental health professional. The content shared on GiftyTails is intended to provide general information, encouragement, and practical ideas for navigating everyday overwhelm, organization, and personal well-being. It is not a substitute for professional medical, mental health, or therapeutic advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Reading this content does not create a professional or therapeutic relationship between you and GiftyTails.
Everyone's experience is different, and what helped me may not work the same way for you. Please use your own judgment, and talk with a qualified professional before making decisions about your health. Any use of this information is at your own discretion, and GiftyTails is not responsible for outcomes resulting from it.
If you are struggling with persistent anxiety, mental health concerns, or other health-related issues, we encourage you to seek support from a qualified healthcare professional.
This post mentions the Starting Point Planner, a product created and sold by GiftyTails.