How to Reset the Day If You Wake Up Late

… instead of getting into a bad mood about it

Nela Canovic
3 min readNov 14, 2022
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

You made a promise to yourself the night before that you’ll wake up early to get ahead of the day, have plenty of time, and finish up some work. And then you broke that promise by hitting the snooze button and sleeping in.

Finally, you open your eyes and squint at the clock. Is it possible it’s an hour later?!

You jump out of bed and immediately start berating yourself for being late. This is not how it was supposed to be. Why do I procrastinate, yet again?

The frustration, worry, and overwhelm start creeping in. The day is off to a bad start, and you know it.

If this is a familiar scenario you’ve replayed many times in your life, imagine it’s a movie you’re watching.

Now hit the pause button.

Give yourself time to reset the day.

How do you do that?

Give your brain 5 minutes.

Sure, you’re now running late for everything, but don’t allow panic to set in. Allow your brain a few minutes to acknowledge what’s happening. Tell yourself, OK so it’s not ideal and I feel bad about it, but we’ll be OK. We will make it work. Then make yourself that cup of coffee — a…

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Nela Canovic

Growth mindset hacker, writer, Silicon Valley entrepreneur.