Last week on a mastermind call, someone asked a question that stopped the whole room: “What do you do when you’re coming back from a hiatus? When you’ve been off your game and you don’t even know where to start?”
Everyone had something to share. Some people talked about finding your why again, reconnecting with your passion. All of that matters. But if you know me, you know I go straight to the tactical. Feelings are real, but a plan is what actually gets you moving.
And I’m not saying this from a distance. I shared last week that June was rough. Things slipped that I hadn’t planned to slip — the blog, the podcast — areas I fully intended to keep running at full speed. We had mapped out the summer to work hard so we could pull back in the fall like we always do. It didn’t go as planned. So when I sat down to get back on track, here’s exactly what I did.
Step 1: Do a Brain Dump and Review Where You Actually Are
Before you can move forward, you need an honest picture of where you’re standing. Not where you think you are — where you actually are.
I sat down and reviewed everything. What got done in June? What didn’t? What’s the current status of every active project? When I did this, I realized we were in a better spot than it felt like. We had completed projects. Our current work was in a solid place. There were gaps — like needing to update the website with recent work — but those were manageable. They just needed to be named.
Don’t skip this step. It’s tempting to bypass the inventory and just start doing things, but the brain dump is what gets the noise out of your head and onto paper where you can actually work with it.
Step 2: Get Clear on Your Capacity and Your Goals
Once you know where you are, you need to get honest about two things: what you have the capacity to do right now, and what you actually want.
These are separate questions and both matter.
Capacity looks like: how many hours do you realistically have? What’s competing for your attention? What’s your energy actually like right now? Coming back from a hard season means you probably can’t sprint immediately. That’s not failure — that’s reality.
Goals look like: what do you want right now? Is it revenue? More time with your family? Both? You’re allowed to have more than one goal, but you need to understand how they stack. For us, the goal is hitting $10K in July and working toward $30K months by end of year. That’s the financial target. But I also know how that happens — through consistent visibility and understanding my leading indicators across each area of the business. When I know the goal and how it breaks down, I know exactly what to prioritize.
What you want determines what you do. Don’t skip the clarifying work.
Step 3: Give Yourself Grace — and Use Your Minimum Day
This is the part nobody tells you enough: you cannot come back at full speed immediately, and you shouldn’t try.
When I’m returning from a tough season, I lean hard on what I call the Minimum Day — the non-negotiables that keep the business moving, even on the hardest days. Your Minimum Day should take no more than 30 to 60 minutes. For me, it’s reviewing our numbers, responding to comments and DMs, and making sure posts go live. That’s it.
If that’s all I get done on a given day? That’s enough. My worth is not tied to more than that. Saying that out loud feels simple, but it’s something I have to actively choose to believe.
The Minimum Day is actually one of the deliverables inside my Quiet Clarity Time Audit — alongside your Ideal Week Template, your Delegation Plan, and your No List. Because the way you build sustainable momentum isn’t by doing everything at once. It’s by knowing the minimum that matters and protecting that, especially when things are hard.
The Bottom Line
Coming back isn’t about finding a perfect relaunch moment. It’s about telling the truth about where you are, being real about what you have to give, knowing what you’re working toward, and then showing up for the small things consistently.
Review where you are. Understand your capacity and your goals. Give yourself grace. Protect your Minimum Day.
That’s how you come back — not all at once, but with intention.
If you want help creating your own Minimum Day and building a week that actually works for your life and your business, the Quiet Clarity Time Audit is a great place to start. Drop CLARITY in the comments or send me a DM.
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