At the start of the new year, many of us were determined to become more focused, more organised, perhaps more athletic versions of who we were in 2025. But how long do those good intentions last? For most of us, not beyond the end of February.
That’s partly because January comes with a psychological pull called “the fresh start effect” – a burst of motivation that makes change feel possible. But as time passes, and your energy ebbs, the pressure to transform can backfire. And the harder you force it, the faster you burn out.
A smarter move is to soft-launch your work year: make small, sustainable shifts and let them slowly build. Once spring rolls around, you’ll emerge from hibernation and have a far higher chance of success in keeping those resolutions going – without exhausting yourself.
It sounds simple, but it’s hard to go slow when you’re used to moving fast. I should know. I’ve done the loop of fresh-start-to-burnout and back again more times than I’d like to admit. I love that dopamine-fuelled burst of “new me” energy. But it wears off and I get worn out. Soft-launching feels more gentle and sustainable – here are my tips for getting started.
1 Start with a small check-in
I schedule a few hours at the weekend to soften the “Sunday scaries”. It’s time to reflect, catch up on admin and start the week feeling prepared, not behind.
I also check in on the tiny changes I actually want to make this year: reading more books and staying on top of my expenses.
This way I don’t feel like time is flying past without me making any progress. It also acts as a “container”, so admin tasks don’t spill into my work week – give it a try.
2 Think in seasons, not years
Rochelle Bugg, a content and personal branding specialist, tells me she soft launched her 2026 by dividing it into chunks.
“I think about the year in quarters,” she says. “Not one long, intimidating 12-month stretch, but four three-month chapters.” She credits this thinking to The 12-Week Year, a book that takes the pressure off long-term planning.
“The shorter timeframe gives me more clarity and weekly actions,” she says. “It also takes the pressure off that first stretch of the year. I know things naturally ramp up, so I’d rather show up imperfectly than burn out by April.”
3 Lock in the essentials
It’s the boring advice we all try to skip. But we need to get the basics right: regular hearty meals, daily movement, daylight (where possible), and screen time boundaries. Above all, we need to prioritise sleep.
Simon Neave, founder and CEO of the sleep tech business Leep, learned this while building a start-up. “Sleep is the foundational principle,” he says. “Getting up at the same time every day and having morning light in the first half an hour sets your circadian clock ticking.
“I often wake up in the night with something on my mind,” he adds. “But I practise the rule that if I don’t get back to sleep in 15 minutes, I get up and go downstairs in the dark and read a book until I feel sleepy again.”
It can feel counterintuitive to slow down when you’re stressed, but the basics matter.
4 Share the load
Soft-launching also means dropping the fantasy that you can do everything yourself. Many of us juggle too many tasks because we think that’s what productivity looks like.
Neave learned this the hard way: “For ages I thought doing everything myself was what you did when you cared. But it’s not sustainable. It slows you down in ways you don’t notice until you’re stuck.”
His answer was to find the right support. “You don’t need a huge team. Just the right people in the right places,” he says. “I got help with the tasks that drained me, freeing me up to focus on the things only I can do.”
Bugg learned this too when launching her podcast Content that Clicks with her friend Henrietta Ward. “If I was doing it alone, I probably would have given up,” she says. “We’ve had to juggle house moves and country relocations, as well as our full-on day jobs. But when you’re working with the right person, the challenges feel like puzzles you can solve together.”
5 Use tools that save your energy
Even without a team, there are tools to help you reduce the day-to-day drag that drains you through a thousand small tasks.
Adobe Acrobat Studio helps you power through common workplace jobs in one place. It brings together easy-to-use PDF tools, AI-powered workspaces and Adobe Express creation tools.
A key feature is PDF Spaces, which lets you turn collections of PDFs, webpages and files into one shareable workspace. From there, an AI Assistant can pull out key points, generate summaries and surface insights.
And because it includes creation tools from Adobe Express, you can turn ideas into visuals. Like a presentation or social post, using templates if you’ve not got a real eye for design.
It’s a hub that reduces friction, protects your attention and saves you time and energy for the parts of your job, and life, that matter.
The takeaway
In 2026, keep aiming for slow, steady change that lasts. I’m convinced a softer launch is a smarter one.
Find out how Adobe Acrobat Studio can help you work smarter not harder
