TikTok's 'Sunday Reset' Trend Is Actually a Great Way to Prepare for the Work Week

Credit: TikTok

I love gimmicky social media trends as much as the next person, but that doesn't mean I understand what they are right away. For a few months, I've seen people on TikTok and Reels engaging in a "Sunday reset," but each reset seemed to be a little different—In one video, I'd see someone cleaning their apartment, and in another, someone would be doing pilates. Over time, though, the idea of a "Sunday reset" finally started to make sense to me, and I actually think it's a great way to incorporate a bit of structure and mindfulness into a routine before the work week begins.

What is a "Sunday reset," anyway?

There are over 500,000 videos tagged #SundayReset on TikTok right now, but since relatively few people use hashtags consistently compared to those who don't, we can go ahead and assume the number of Sunday reset videos overall is much higher. Search that term and you'll find all kinds of examples of people filming themselves doing something—usually a lot of somethings—on Sunday to prepare for the upcoming week. The problem is, the videos are all really disparate. One creator's Sunday reset might be a Costco run and a kitchen restock, another's might be meal prepping, another's might be cleaning the bathroom, and yet another's might include all the steps they take in their weekly self-care and relaxing routine. Examples of Sunday resets I've seen lately:

Grocery shopping, fridge cleaning, and restocking

Cleaning a kitchen, bathroom, or bedroom top to bottom

Washing and switching out sheets, pillow cases, and comforters

Doing the whole household's laundry

Doing homework or professional work in a home office

Bathing the dog

Making a complicated, delicious drink and sitting down somewhere cozy to read

So, what's going on? The idea here isn't that the Sunday reset is a predetermined thing that everyone has agreed to do ahead of a new week. Rather, it's more about shaking off any baggage from the prior week and getting the new week started with a fresh start, both mentally and physically. Imagine that your Sunday reset is really your way of beating back your Sunday scaries (remember when everyone said that?). Whatever you need to look ahead to for the week is your reset goal.

Obviously, some forms of reset are oversampled on TikTok, as they lend themselves more to visually appealing videos. Restocking a fridge is a classic example of something that is both easy to film and satisfying to watch, whereas sitting down with a planner and scheduling out the upcoming week is less enticing for a viewer, so you'll see that much less when you're scrolling.

How to make your own Sunday reset

The reason this works well as a concept is that it gives you some structure on a day of the week that might otherwise slip into laziness or freefall, so you get a little routine going and can feel more prepared going into the week. No matter whether you choose to clean up, prepare for work, or engage in self-care as your personal reset, make a goal to stick to doing this every Sunday, at least for a few weeks, to really feel its impact on your overall readiness and mood as Monday arrives.

For me, a Sunday reset involves spending the morning and afternoon fixing up my apartment and the evening fixing up myself. I take out the trash, do my laundry, declutter, mop, and do whatever little home-based project I need to do. Last Sunday, for instance, I framed all the photo strips I've taken with my friends over the years and started creating a massive gallery wall, which was the perfect, sentimental way to bridge the gap between my "home improvement" and "self-care" reset sections. In the evening, I launch into a giant self-care adventure, focusing on haircare, skincare, a classic "everything shower," and finding the most fragrant lotion, softest pajamas, and tastiest tea in my newly clean home. Together, these resets prepare my space and my body for whatever the week may bring, but I prioritize these reset categories over, say, working out or grocery shopping, because they're the things I have less time for during the week and get stressed trying to schedule otherwise. To find your perfect reset, consider what you usually feel least prepared for during a given week and what you dread most as Monday approaches—then, get it all done on Sunday.

For a few ideas, I threw together some checklists for resets in Google Sheets that you can use—just make a copy of the doc that you can edit. These are just suggestions based on general weekly cleaning guidelines and things you can do to get a head start for the work week, so feel free to customize it however you like. While you should follow a similar routine each week, this shouldn't be stressful or overly complicated. The idea is to get you prepared for what you need to do over the next five days and ease you back into work and non-weekend life easily, so be sure to approach this the way the TikTok creators are: Light some candles, prepare a favorite drink, listen to music, and wear your comfiest lounge attire.