January Doesn't Mean a Clean Slate

A new year often comes with the hope of a reset. A clean slate. A fresh start. But for students—and for most of us January doesn’t begin at zero.

January 20, 2026 by

Scilla Andreen

You know that feeling when you open your laptop and there are 47 tabs still open from two weeks ago?

That’s January.

The calendar flips, but inside you’re running the same operating system. Same nervous system. Same stress. Same thoughts looping since November.

For educators already running on empty, January can feel like being asked to sprint without catching your breath.

For parents carrying everyone else’s emotions, it can feel like one more thing to get right.

For students holding anxiety they can’t name, it can feel like everyone expects them to suddenly be “better.”

Here’s the truth: the holidays don’t erase what we’re carrying. They interrupt it.

They can feel like shaking an Etch A Sketch—everything blurs for a moment. Routines loosen. The lines fade. It can feel like things have reset. But once life starts moving again, the same patterns often reappear.

And that interruption matters.

January is a brief window when awareness is high and old routines haven’t fully locked back in yet. Before we slip into autopilot, we have a chance to make a small shift.

Not everything. Just something.

Brain science tells us real change doesn’t come from big overhauls. It comes from small, repeatable actions that teach the nervous system it’s safe to respond differently.

We call these micro habits. They’re not about willpower. They’re about working with how the brain actually functions.

Two simple examples:

Settle the body first.

Before reacting, put both feet on the floor, take one slow breath in, and exhale a little longer than you inhaled. A longer exhale tells the nervous system, “I’m safe.”

Shrink the moment.

Instead of thinking about the whole day or the whole problem, ask: What’s the next small thing? Bringing the brain back to the present reduces overwhelm and restores a sense of control.

This is the work we do at Impactful Networks—meeting people where they are, not just in moments of crisis, but upstream in classrooms, homes, and workplaces.

A new year doesn’t mean a clean slate.

But it does mean the story is still unfolding. And January is a powerful place to begin—one small shift at a time.

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