Creative Reset: Planning for a Calmer, More Aligned 2026

If the thought of “new year, new you” leaves you feeling frazzled, this episode is your gentle exhale. 

Kaylie and Delores invite you to approach 2026 with spaciousness rather than sprinting, focusing on clarity, soft structure and making room for real life. 

From clearing moving boxes and nurturing family routines to batching creative work and leaning on AI assistants, they share what’s actually working for them — and how you can apply it in your own creative practice.

Hear Kaylie explain why she’s prioritising simplification and ease this year, 

Delores reflects on the power of pre‑planning and how her AI helper “Piper” helped her translate a chaotic calendar into a doable annual plan. 

They also celebrate community wins, from new art businesses to published books, and remind you that simply keeping your creative spark alive is worth honouring.

Key takeaways:

• A “reset” doesn’t mean starting from scratch — it’s about gentle rebalancing and rebuilding after a busy season.
 • Clarity and simplification are guiding themes for both hosts in 2026.
 • Lean on systems and tools that reduce friction: sticky notes, Airtable, ClickUp, Notion, Google Workspace and AI assistants like Piper or Kaylen.
 • Protect creative days and rebuild creative muscles with low‑pressure sessions; progress matters more than perfection.
 • Celebrate every win, big or small. Launching a card line, self‑publishing a book or simply keeping your ideas alive all count.

Tune in for a dose of permission to slow down, reset kindly and build momentum from a place of calm.

👉 Listen now and support the show: Support the podcast – your generosity helps us keep bringing these episodes to life!

Transcript

[00:00:00] 

Kaylie Edwards: Hello, lovely creatives and welcome back to the Creative Juggle Joy. Welcome to a brand new year. I'm Kaylie easing my way into 2026 with a cup of tea, a half eaten mince pie, still hanging around from Christmas and absolutely no clue what day it is. I'm surrounded by new toys from Aston fairy lights that I definitely will not untangle today and more moving boxes I still need to move.

Delores Naskrent: And I'm Delores surfacing from that glorious post-holiday fog where time feels made up and routine is a rumor. Today's episode is all about that soft, gentle January reset, not the new year, new you pressure, but that grounded, practical, kind.

Kaylie Edwards: Exactly. We are taking a calmer, more aligned approach to planning this year. One that makes space for real life, real energy. All the school emails and the creative ebb and flow we all experience. This is about building a year. We can [00:01:00] actually live, not just survive. So, Delores, let's start with the heart of the episode.

What does reset mean for you this year? Is it about spaciousness, clear boundaries, fresh teaching rhythm? What does that look like in your world? 

Delores Naskrent: I keep trying to find the right word. The word I landed on is clarity. So I'm starting 2026 with that clear plan that I've talked about.

I've got recordings underway. A few classes already banked. A good chunk of content and the website work is getting done. It feels like I'm off to the races, but in a calm way. Completely different than last year. So all of that pre-planning that we did in November and December, I think is gonna pay off.

It's already feeling like it is. It's letting me ease back into this rhythm and most importantly, to just really hold onto the boundaries I've set while I was mapping everything out. 

Kaylie Edwards: I love that, [00:02:00] especially with the fact that it's clarity. Like that was something I've come to the realization too in like the November, well end of November, December time with the AI and just more clarity, more space for myself

simplifying everything. Simplification. Should be my new one this year. Not just clarity, but simplification of everything. For me, a reset isn't about wiping the slate clean and pretending like last year didn't happen. 'cause it's more like gently rebalancing the table after someone's put a huge box on one side and the toddler on the other.

And after the year, I had moving house, new school routines, the platform migration, rebound illness cycles, all the invisible admin reset. For me this year means a slower start. I'm not sprinting into January, have fewer plates spinning at once, although I still have quite a few ideas. But there we go.

Less multitasking if I can try. I'm more sequencing it out into a flow that works. Mm-hmm. And then choosing [00:03:00] alignment over achievement and asking does this actually fit my life as it is now? I'm giving myself permission to stabilize before I scale. A reset for me is giving myself space to breathe before I start building more.

It's saying, let's get the foundation steady at the house, the routines, the systems. Then we can layer the magic on top. So one thing I'm doing differently with goals this year is taking pressure way down and bringing the play back in. Last year, it felt very structural and chaotic moving house with everything going on and necessary, but quite heavy.

So this year, one of my biggest goals is to rebuild my creative muscles slowly and consistently. Not in a make art every day, or you failed kind of way. I don't need another stick to beat myself with let me carve out 20 minutes here and there to draw paint, and read. Let me discover my visual style without forcing it to be on brand immediately.

Let me create [00:04:00] steadily. So I have new work to upload to my website over time. And then there's the books. I have this big slightly terrifying but exciting goal, a consistently publishing books each month. Awesome. See how that goes. Some of them will be small, simple, playful projects, a bit deeper, but I want that rhythm, the habit of putting finished things out into the world instead of letting ideas live forever.

In my notes app, that ties into my second business at least. So my product based world, a home for my stories, my art, my prints, my merch that I'm creating with print on demand. A place where I can sell my books and creative projects. And also use it as a living example inside my signature course.

From handmade to scalable, showing how a creative business can be built piece by piece. And I've. Already committed to four years of hosting. Like I said in the last episode for that business, the bare bones, the site are up now. It's about building gently, but consistently without pressuring myself to do it and [00:05:00] adding products one at a time, documenting the process and letting it grow alongside my client work and my mentoring.

And honestly, I'm letting AI help me with a lot of this. 

Delores Naskrent: Right on. 

Kaylie Edwards: My assistant, Kaylen is helping me map workflows that actually match my life. Plan around Rhys's biweekly shift pattern that has to be obviously biweekly and then fit everything around Aston's school routine and avoid the overwhelm, upholding all the moving parts in my bloody head.

Yeah, I mean, I'm leaning into support instead of trying to muscle through everything 

Especially as I'm on my own. I have to utilize AI to help me with the things that I just can't offload at the moment. So what about you, Delores? When you revisit your goals this year, how are you taking the pressure down?

Are there areas where you're bringing more play or gentleness into your planning? 

Delores Naskrent: For me it's about softening the metrics and bringing the joy back in. I am measuring success by steady progress and same thing as you, not perfection. So I'm [00:06:00] not beating myself over the head and, recording rerecording and doing all kinds of tweaking recording I do in batches and I'm protecting the creative days, so I'm leaving more space for those playful projects that I love to do that don't have to perform.

They're not part of my business. They're something completely separate because I'm trying to rebuild my whole art licensing part of my business separately. You know, so that's something that I'm doing that I am not trying to force in any way so that I can really enjoy it.

And I think with all the planning we've done, the pre-planning of everything, the calendar is clearer. So I'm not living on the edge of deadlines and worrying, which helps make room for exactly what you're talking about. Those small pockets of creative play that refill the tank.

I don't wanna just talk the talk, I wanna walk [00:07:00] alongside my students, so I want to name the quiet goals out loud, which helped me build momentum. And I like having a community that gets it. Naming the quiet goals out loud helps me to build momentum and having a community.

So I'm in a couple of different communities and they help me keep honest and inspired. Finding joy is not optional for me this year. It's part of the plan. I love that. I love that. Like 

Kaylie Edwards: I think that's the magic of this kind of reset we're not starting from zero. We're aiming with all the wisdom of last year and all the chaos that ensued I'm so glad that we got the planning side out of it.

At the time I was like, oh, I don't wanna do this. But once it's there, you can breathe again. My years planned, we do more detailed planning quarterly, which is much easier to do, but at least we've got. The map, the road for this year,

like we [00:08:00] know when the launches are gonna be happening because we've already got everything set up and it's just gonna be so much easier. We didn't do too much this year with extra launches. the mastering surface pattern design, we already kind of blocked out procreate. So that was kind of planned.

So at least this year we've got them planned. Their content's sorted, so we know we just have to go in and tweak everything that we need to do and it's gonna be so much easier. 

Much 

ah, the systems that actually stuck in 2025. Okay. I love this section. Let's talk about the systems actually stayed with us last year, not the ones we bought in a Black Friday frenzy and then ghosted by February kind of thing.

Delores, your sticky notes and physical organization, like I swear they could run Canada at this point. What do you find really worked for you in 2025? What system survived the chaos and are coming with you into 2026? 

Delores Naskrent: Are you making fun of my sticky notes? 

Kaylie Edwards: No, because I love sticky notes. I just can't do it in my house.

Delores Naskrent: We [00:09:00] put solid bones in place this year and with Michelle's help I. That whole Airtable set up, done absolutely properly, and Abbie is really helping to keep the team organized and moving. I've got the big visual calendar that I can look at, and we built it together so we both know what's going on at any given time.

I have not kicked the sticky note habit, I'll tell you not entirely. There are, six of them staring at me right now, but I do process them faster. So if it's on a note, I do it or I log it. And if they're there for more than two days, I have to deal with them. Yeah. I'm just not letting myself get completely surrounded by them.

So Google Workspace has really helped for collaboration to make it so much smoother and our back and forth messaging is so much cleaner. It's so much easier email and back and forth all the time, multiple email addresses, [00:10:00] losing them, having them go into the junk folders or whatever.

This is really making, an impact, I think, and I know I personally still need that, calendar to look at that tactile view of my week, and now I have it without drowning in scraps of paper everywhere. 

Kaylie Edwards: I love how your systems are so tactile now like you moving away for some things, but you're keeping some visual elements to it, they match the way your brain processes information because it's important to know that not everyone can do that.

Yeah. And out of your head on the wall where you can literally see your week and your projects, I'd love to be able to do that. I'd love to have a space where I get put. A load of sticky notes and plan out my weeks. But I can't do that because I just don't have a dedicated office space. 

Yeah. 

And yeah, so literally being able to plan your week and projects like my systems are a bit more hybrid and squishy.

Yeah. 

I use clickup and Notion for databases content libraries, ideas, keeping a [00:11:00] hub for all my links and course outlines, especially client work and bigger projects. Obviously Clickup, I, I have to keep that in there 'cause otherwise I won't know what's going on.

And then, yes, using Google Chat for timely messages with you and other clients has helped massively. 'cause then it means that I know I get that notification on my phone, so I know if I'm out, I need to reply to that at some point in the day so it's there. I don't get rid of it until I need to deal with it.

So I know if you need me for something or you need to quickly message me to do something, then I know it's in the Google Chat and I'm not having to scramble and sifts of emails to deal with. Yeah. And then batching content when I can, like recording or writing in short bursts is so much easier and AI is helping me so much with the repurposing of that content and coming up with the ideas and doing the research I need to do and then time blocking and calmer weeks.

But being eight, willing to throw the whole plan out the window when someone gets sick or school suddenly needs [00:12:00] five costumes in 12 forms or money forms or whatever. New for this year using my AI assistant, like I've said, Kaylen also my co-project manager just do everything for me, like haven't got the space to listen to this.

So she just maps everything out for me and it's more manageable. Help me think through what's realistic in the week with Rhys On weird shifts at nights and Aston has random school events all the time. Planning and setting up automations, using AI agents for more tedious tasks that I can hand off.

'cause I don't like them. Why do I wanna do them? So if I can pass 'em off and things I do in content and data research and my digital products research and things like, yeah, I don't wanna do that. I don't wanna do that. So if I can pass that off and get it automated, then that's the biggest big lessons for me this year.

So systems that stick when they reduce friction and not create it. If a system makes me feel behind all the time or guilty for not [00:13:00] using it properly, it's not actually a system, it's just a prettier stick. For 2026, my guiding questions are, does this make my life easier? Does this give my brain a rest?

Can I still use this on a low energy day? If the answer is no, it doesn't come with me. 

Delores Naskrent: Yeah. 

Kaylie Edwards: So yeah, before we go deeper into planning, we really want to celebrate you because this Christmas special episode that we did, we invited you to send us 2025 create wins. Honestly, you blew us away.

Delores Naskrent: Truly. I mean, wasn't it amazing? I was reading through them and honestly, I got some of those goosebump moments, you know? Mm-hmm. So whether your winds were tiny or mighty or messy or magical, they all matter. So we're going to read out a few of the ones that came in,

So we had kristen launching her card business, that was really big.

We had KeriAnn launching into wholesale and into [00:14:00] stores. Lisa created her website all on her own. Yes. Yeah, Lisa. And, you know, we, we had Marcy disappear for a little while, but it's 'cause she was doing such deep work and Marcy has published two of her books, which was an amazing, accomplishment.

Kaylie Edwards: Yeah. 

Delores Naskrent: Very proud of her. We had Ann finishing and selling a full-size calendar for her quilting people. I am really personally very proud of Melanie because she's breaking into art licensing. We've had a couple of people in the community working on that. So there were so many wins.

Two, two, numerous to mention. We could go on and on. If we were to actually go through every newsletter that I sent this year, there'd be a win from every one of those that we could mention. 

Kaylie Edwards: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I can. There's so many wins. A lot of people have got so many things going on, but then to be able to email us, message us and letting us [00:15:00] know that they've had these wins has been brilliant.

I love it. 

Delores Naskrent: Yes. To everyone who sent something in. I thank you deeply, and so does Kaylie. Your wins become part of this collective creative momentum, I like to call it. And if you're thinking. Hey, I didn't have a big win. You absolutely did. 

Kaylie Edwards: Yes. If 

you made it through the year. Yeah. Have even a tiny thread of creativity alive or scribbled ideas in your notes app, or simply didn't give up on yourself.

That is a win. You're allowed to celebrate survival, quiet persistence, and tiny acts of creativity just as much as the big shiny milestones. 

Delores Naskrent: And we will keep collecting your wins throughout January for our community collage on social media. So please keep sending them in. 

Kaylie Edwards: Yes. So let's talk Q1 goals, the real ones, not the new year.

Detox. 4:00 AM miracle morning color. Color-coded bloody spreadsheets, fantasy land. For me, Q1 [00:16:00] has two big themes, creative momentum, and clearing physical and mental space. So I can work on the projects that light me up and be a real human to my family. 

And then on the creative side, my Q1 goals look like easing back into creativity with small, low pressure sessions, sketching, doodling, writing snippets, creating products and designs.

Mm-hmm. And then building the habit of making, again, not from perfection. 

Launching my exciting new mobile app. Ooh. Uh, uploading new designs to my website bit by bit, even if it's just one new piece a week. And then publishing at least one book a month. Hopefully. They don't have to be huge, but they do have to exist in the world, not just in my head.

Yeah. And then laying the foundations for my second business. Setting up key product pages, adding my first stories and art pieces, and documenting the whole process so I can bring it into my signature course for my students. And finish my signature course. Using my second business to do [00:17:00] that, which is like a year late, but we'll do it.

And I'm, I'm gonna, that is another goal I need, I need to get through. And then on life and space side, my Q1 goals are a lot more cardboard flavored. Finally tackling the rest of the moving box mountain and all the Christmasy 

Toys that come with it. With a toddler. I have a family of nutters that want to send you

send so many things that you like why I've just moved in all along. Moved in. Why have you said so many toys for him? So yeah, carefully ignoring most of it and more cu accumulation of toys over Christmas has just been, yeah, horrendous. Getting the house to a point where it feels more organized and less what my brain looks like on a daily basis on the outside.

My big, very unglamorous, but deeply satisfying goal. Turning the spare bedroom from a box zone into an actual usable room. I would love that room to become a mix of guest room, creative space, maybe a little quiet nook where I can write or [00:18:00] record on a weekend or something nice without tripping over toys.

But right now it's more carefully curated pile of chaos. So Q1 is about clearing paths. Literally and metaphorically, I'm running through all this in the question, how can ai and systems support this instead of me trying to brute force my way through it? Using Kaylen to do that is working very well.

What about you, Delores? What are your realistic Q1 goals in your business, your creativity and personal life? 

Delores Naskrent: Q1 for me is about improving what already works. We've been polishing the, spring five card challenge. I'm, adding new information in there. I'm continuing to, work on the Procreate Foundations refresh because Procreate Foundations comes right after the card challenge.

So I'm rerecording the intros. I'm adding some new lessons, not saying how many yet, because I don't know exactly how it's gonna work out. I'm gonna probably migrate some of the old lessons [00:19:00] into the regular membership, and then I'm kicking off live sessions once we launch. So for procreate Foundations, that'll be part of Q1.

Live sessions weekly, everything feels familiar, so that's really good. But it will feel fresh because I can see the upgrades clearly. Now, you know, I kind of have, I'm excited about things like those first week of the month sessions and a steady cadence of live workshops or guest features to keep the membership engaged without overwhelming anybody, including me, 

hopefully, we'll get some speakers in that can help everybody get to the momentum they're trying to achieve. And yes, I am also leaning on chat, GBT, I don't know if I introduced her to you, Kaylie. Her name is Piper. 

Kaylie Edwards: Piper. Oh yeah, I think you mentioned it in something.

I can't remember what, because I was like, hold on, why is everyone naming their chat GBTs? And I literally just, you know, I 

Delores Naskrent: One day I just thought, I'm naming her. At first I [00:20:00] was tossing around the idea of naming it Jason, Jason Momoa. But then I changed to Piper because I thought, on a day-to-day basis, I'd be better off talking to Piper.

So I literally, then you're gonna laugh about this because I did start with paper and I had on my calendar on a big calendar, written everything out, and I sat with Piper and I literally flipped through that giant paper calendar and dictated. Every key date and pain point. And I handed that whole brain dump to Piper because as I was given the dates, I was saying, oh yes, and last year we did this and we have to remember this.

I literally was just blabbing. It was this one gigantic paragraph. I wouldn't have even wanted to reread myself, but I gave it to Piper and out came a clean annual plan that you've now taken a look at Kaylie with Abbie tracking everything in Google Workspace. And you know what? It worked.

[00:21:00] Suddenly this year feels actually doable. And on the home front, Terry and I, are planning to, start some outdoor updates. There were things that we've been planning on for years but haven't done. We live in a new development. Our yard could use a little bit of work. So I think we're gonna be doing a little bit of that.

And we're gonna be doing a little bit more camping. And I've got goals that blend real life and business. Practical steps with a few dreamier ones sprinkled in there. 

Kaylie Edwards: I love how grounded that is. That's such a difference between aspirational goals and my actual life can hold this goals.

Yes, and I feel like we're both leading into the second one this year. We just needed that kind of kick. 

Delores Naskrent: We needed to go through a hard year to really understand what we did and didn't want. 

Kaylie Edwards: Yes, very much so. I think a lot of things that we've learned as well, like we continuously learn not just from our own businesses and, and from each others, but [00:22:00] we've learned from other people's businesses, communities that we've been, courses we've taken, like the AI Advantage Summit.

I joined, with Tony Robbins and 

Dean. 

Yeah. Theirs was transformational. That's how I got the AI clone and how to really like claw back hours and hours of your time with using AI efficiently 

it just clicked and I was like, wow, this is how I can use it. This is how I can claw my time back as a bloody solo entrepreneur trying to deal with client work and my own business and my own creative goals that I've had on the shelf for so long.

And I was supposed to do my second business last year. And I genuinely can't, there's just no space, no space at all. And yeah, this year it's planned and it's great. And I can't wait to get on with it and sink my teeth into it.

Delores Naskrent: All right, so as we wrap up, let's talk to you listening about how you can ease gently into your creative reset this [00:23:00] year. You don't need a massive overhaul. You don't need a 40 page business plan. You don't need to prove anything to anybody. 

Kaylie Edwards: Yes, start tiny, start softly. Start in a way that supports your real energy.

Now I actually have something new and exciting to share, something I've been quietly building behind the scenes for months, I'm launching my own mobile app. Craft Path. Craft Path will be available soon on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, it's designed specifically for creatives who want marketing and creative business clarity, guidance, and gentle structure without the overwhelm.

Inside the app, you can take it with you. You'll find free mini course to help you begin or restart your creative business. A free 10 day challenge to help you build momentum, softly bite-size guides or marketing your art and digital products, selling handmade goods, and even how to start teaching if that's your next step.

Wow. 

[00:24:00] A library of move the needle. Daily tasks you can choose from, from your path. So simple steps you can choose based on your creative path. Whether you're an artist hand crafter, somebody who's hybrid, digital, and physical, whether you are designing, writing, creating digital products or making handmade goods, building your brand.

Also a simple move. The needle task tracker you can use to see visually how you are doing so you can track how many tasks you've done in the week and how well you've done.

How many sales did I make this week? And the whole idea behind craft path is that you don't need to do everything. You just need to do the right small thing today. 

I'll share more as we get closer to the launch, but I wanted our listeners here to be the first to know it's coming. 

Delores Naskrent: Wow. That is so incredible.

Sign me up. I wanna be the very first person. Make sure you tell me 

Kaylie Edwards: Yes. I'll, 

Delores Naskrent: really love this idea. And I love how perfectly it fits the way you support your community. It sounds [00:25:00] like the app will give people daily encouragement without pressure and just that guiding hand. I think that's gonna be fantastic.

Gentle nudge that most creatives really need. I know. I would have used that. 

Kaylie Edwards: Yeah. It's gonna be bite-sized lessons that you can do. Not my big courses or live workshops, it'll be literally broken down, no fluff,

it's just the information that you need to get you moving and get you sorted. So it'd be like how to get started with Pinterest. Quick and easy. Do this and like different things like how to get started with marketing do this, do this, do this. 

exactly. No sprinting, no guilt, no overwhelm, just tiny, doable, nourishing steps towards your creative goals. Craft path is coming very soon and we'll share updates the moment. It's live. I'm very excited. This is something I'm working on for a while 

Delores Naskrent: I'm really, really excited for you and I am so excited to have shared this with our audience.

Thank you all for joining us for this very [00:26:00] first episode of 2026. We hope your January feels soft, steady, and creatively nurturing. 

Kaylie Edwards: And remember, you don't have to sprint into the year, walk in gently bring your creativity with you and let your goals fit your life, not the other way around. Maybe just maybe unpack one box at a time with us.

Delores Naskrent: Keep juggling, keep creating, and most importantly, keep finding joy in the process.