Nicole Junkerman: An October 2026 Reset

What a reset is not

The word has acquired a slightly breathless quality, as though it meant tearing the year down and starting again. A reset in the sense meant here is smaller and far more useful: a deliberate pause to check that the things being done are still the things worth doing. Nothing is abandoned. Nothing is overhauled. Nicole Junkerman treats it as maintenance rather than reinvention, which is why it takes an afternoon rather than a season.

Why October suits it

January carries far too much expectation to be honest, and September is too busy to see anything clearly. October sits in a useful middle. Enough of the autumn has happened to know how it is going, and enough remains to change it. The weather encourages an hour indoors with a page, and the end of the year is near enough to take seriously without being near enough to hurry anyone.

Three questions worth asking

The whole exercise fits into three plain questions. What has gone better than expected since the start of September? What has quietly slipped? And what was planned for this autumn that now looks as though it belonged to a different mood entirely? The answers rarely surprise anyone who asks them properly. Writing them down is what turns a vague sense into something that can actually be acted on.

Keeping the answers small

The temptation after any honest review is to respond in proportion to the honesty, which is how a thoughtful hour turns into an unworkable plan. A reset that produces twelve points has failed. One that produces two changes, both small enough to begin the same week, has worked. The learning notes are the right size of container for this: short entries, no ceremony, easy to look at again in November.

What to leave exactly as it is

The most underrated outcome of any review is the decision to change nothing. Plenty of things are already working, and they tend to go unmentioned because nothing draws attention to them. Naming them is not complacency. It is a way of protecting them from the general urge to improve, which will otherwise arrive and rearrange them for no reason. The reading pages are often in this category.

A note for the rest of the month

Once the questions have been answered and the two changes made, the reset is over and deserves to be over. Returning to it weekly turns a piece of maintenance into a hobby, and a rather draining one. The notebook can hold anything left unresolved until it either matters or quietly stops mattering, which is usually what happens. The rest of October is then free to be what it is: a long, steady, well lit month with plenty of time in it.