I am a reset person. A New Year’s Resolution person. Someone who makes a goal-oriented Pinterest mood board on a quarterly basis. I love a good journaling prompt that encourages me to reflect on past wins and lessons and visualize the future with a level of clarity that some of my friends find slightly alarming.
While your inbox, FYP, Instagram feed, Apple News, etc will likely be flooded with “new year, new you” content starting on January 1, I like to get a head start. The stretch of fantasy time between mid-December and New Years is, in my opinion, the superior time to manifest what you want in the year ahead. So in this, my first newsletter in quite some time (ugh!), I want to invite you into my end-of-year reset process: including where in NYC I like to eat, exercise, and shop for all the little tchotchkes that are supposed to fix my entire life.
The Purge
I hate cleaning more than possibly any household chore. The constant horrors of little day to day tasks (putting away laundry, dealing with a sink full of dishes, vacuuming) are the ones that most easily send me into a spiral. But deep cleaning is another story. Give me a small, contained area to empty, scrub, and reorganize and I will approach the task with religious zeal.
I’m currently staring down 15 days where I’m on PTO from my full-time job and am not on book deadline for the first time in an entire year. So naturally, I made myself a lengthy to-do list of all the essential tasks I just haven’t had time for during the past 11 months. Deep-cleaning my kitchen was at the top of that list. Specifically, scrubbing down, inventorying, and reorganizing my fridge and freezer.
I spent the better part of a day on this singular task. I took a paint scraper to dried-on gunk, made a list of all the exceptional Porter Road and Campo Grande meats that had been forgotten in the depths of my freezer, and styled a bowl of Mandarins (impractical, and I don’t care!) to look like the fridgescaped refrigerators I’d been pinning for days. When I stepped back and looked at my task, I felt more accomplished than I did when I turned in the final draft of my second novel a few weeks ago. Because writing a book? I know how to make time for that. Cleaning my fridge was another story.
The Reset Button
One of my biggest goals for 2025 is to prioritize rest and self-care. I spent a frightening number of days this past year hunched over my laptop for 12-14 hours at a time, moving my body only to grab a snack or a glass of water. This behavior will not stand next year, and I’m making some big lifestyle changes to support that. In the meanwhile, I’m hell-bent on using my Classpass credits to hit a hard reset button on both movement and relaxation.
The Mellow Hum class at Humming Puppy in Chelsea. It’s part sound bath, part “adult nap time” and the only restorative yoga class I’ve ever truly loved.
50-minute massages at Chillhouse. I admit that I’m not longer using CP for this, because after receiving the best massage of my life a few months ago, I decided to invest in self-care and spring for the Monthly Dose membership. The membership gets you a 50-minute massage every month for around $85—but you can book all of their services for between 20-66 credits.
I’ve been on head spa TikTok for a while now, and I’ve finally started seeing options in NYC pop up on the app. This week, I’m trying a 50-minute treatment at SHASHA in Borough Park for a very reasonable 22 credits. Will report back!
I love a reformer pilates class, and lately I’ve been loving the 50-minute workout at Jetset Pilates in Soho. It’s less brutal than Solidcore but more intense than classical pilates, which is my personal sweet spot.
Another thing that gets me out of bed and into a Jetset class? It’s down the street from Happier Grocery, my slightly-shameful wellness obsession. Think of it like the love child of Erewhon and a Hudson Valley shoppy shop. You’ll find all your favorite DTC beauty and pantry brands, plus shockingly good pizza and sushi and an extravagant selection of bottled water. Everything is expensive, but they have a great loyalty program that lets you earn free money pretty quickly.
Little Treats
As a devotee of little treat culture, I believe that buying a few little things to help get your goal-setting in motion is a good idea. I always restock on my favorite stationary and workspace essentials towards the end of the year, because nothing gets me excited to stick to a plan like a fresh planner. If you’re an IRL shopper based in or around NYC, I like Goods for the Study, Niconeco Zakkaya, and honestly—Muji. Here’s what’s on my shopping list:
Midori notebooks—I like the A5 lined version for daily journaling, and I keep a few A7 grid notebooks around for travel or jotting down ideas when I’m on the go.
I like the A6 Logical Prime lined split ring notebook for outlining, since it’s slim, lays flat, and splits the difference between a lined and a grid notebook.
I’ve been using the Appointed Task Planner for years (and I still highly recommend it!), but in 2025 I’m pivoting to the Hobonichi Techo A5 cousin. My time/life is going to be structured very differently in the coming year, so I wanted a planner that offers a little more flex and creativity. TBD on how it goes, but I’m excited to see how it works out for me.
The only pen I truly love to write with is a medium-nib Kaweco Sport (yes, the ones with the 23K gold plated nib), so I’ll be getting myself a fresh one as a little treat, plus a restock on my favorite Traveler’s Company blue-black ink cartridges.
I’m obsessed with my translucent coffee-colored Womier 75% mechanical keyboard (mine also has these clear, sculpted keycaps on it to maximize the RGB effects), but I’ve been eyeing this super creamy 60% wireless model for a while, and am probably going to cave in the next few days.
I hate to admit it, but a vertical mouse is good! I was looking for a smaller, more lightweight alternative to the Logitech Lift, and have been very happy with this KYSONA ergonomic mouse.
Coming Soon:
Feast and Famine: The Last Great Heir comes out NEXT MONTH! The launch of my debut novel still feels completely fake to me, but allegedly, it’s real. You can pre-order the Barnes & Noble exclusive edition, which has gorgeous sprayed edges and a bonus fairytale (which lays some essential groundwork for the forthcoming sequel), or any format on Amazon.
Barnes & Noble Atlantic Avenue is hosting my book launch event on Tuesday, February 4 at 6:30 PM, and I’d love to see you there!
With the looming lowkey scaries of a possible TikTok ban, you can find me on Instagram—where I’ll be (slightly reluctantly) posting more video content.
Finally, please tell me what you’d love to see more of on Substack next year! I’ll have more time to dedicate to it, which means more time to write exactly what you want to read from me :)