My Adult Back-To-School Routine

10 Things I do every august to reset for fall

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Growing up, my family always spent the last two weeks of August on Nantucket. I loved those trips, but I also remember spending them with this low-level feeling that I should be preparing for something. While I was technically still on summer vacation, my brain had already moved on to new teachers, new classes, new coaches on new sports teams, new morning routines, and all the ways I was going to be more organized this year.

My back-to-school season came with a whole preparation ritual. I'd clean out my room, buy school supplies, pick out new clothes, get my hair done, get my car detailed, and map out the routine that was finally going to turn me into someone who woke up early enough to put on makeup before class and did the reading the night before. By the first day, I felt ready. Or at least freshly highlighted and armed with new notebooks.

I haven't gone back to school in years, but even as an adult, late August still gives me that same itch for a fresh start.

Honestly, adult life still has seasons. Summer is slower. People travel, work quiets down, and weekends are less scheduled. In Texas, where August means 105-degree days with almost no reprieve, we basically go into seasonal hibernation. Then September hits and suddenly it's weddings, football, travel, packed calendars, and a noticeably faster pace of life.

So for the sake of my own sanity, I've kept my back-to-school routine. It just looks a little different now.

Here are the ten things I'm doing this August to get my life back in order before fall.

1. Revisit my goals

Remember the person you were planning to become in January?

August is my mid-to-late-year reality check. I go back through the goals I set at the beginning of the year and figure out what I've accomplished, what I'm still working toward, what has fallen off, and what I honestly don't care about anymore.

There are still four months left in the year, which is enough time to make real progress on something. But rather than adding a bunch of new goals for fall, I like deciding which existing ones are actually worth refocusing my attention and carrying through December.

2. Bring back the routines that worked

Once I know what I'm prioritizing, I look at what I was doing when those things were going well.

Before my wedding, for example, I got into a very specific post-work routine: finish work, eat a piece of fruit, walk three miles, come home and make a protein shake. Fruit, walk, protein. It helped me hit my step, fiber, and protein goals in one swoop without having to make three separate decisions every day.

That routine mostly disappeared once Texas became approximately the temperature of the surface of the sun, but it's coming back as soon as walking outside stops feeling medically inadvisable.

I love the habit-stacking philosophy from Atomic Habits: instead of relying on motivation, attach the thing you want to do to something you're already doing. So rather than designing my fantasy fall routine from scratch, I'm bringing back the systems that I already know make me feel good.

3. Make my fall schedule

One thing I deeply underappreciated about school: someone handed you a schedule.

Adult fall arrives and the calendar just starts filling itself. Before that happens, I look ahead at our travel, weddings, work commitments, and weekends away and figure out what normal life can realistically look like around them.

When am I working out? Which weekends are actually free? When do we need a night at home? What needs to happen during the week if we're gone Friday through Sunday?

The goal is not to schedule my life down to the hour, but I do want the things that matter to have a place on the calendar before everything else takes over.

4. Look ahead to next year

Late August is also when next year starts feeling close enough to think about.

For Kevin and me, that means looking at upcoming travel, weddings, holidays and trips we want to take and figuring out anything we should start preparing for now. Next year is particularly travel-heavy for us, so we're already thinking about savings and how to strategically use our vacation days.

I don't need a fully formed plan for next year. I just want Future Eleanor to benefit occasionally from Current Eleanor having her act together.

5. Do a ruthless declutter

Closet. Bathroom. Kitchen. Junk drawers. Random cabinets. The pile that has discretely become a permanent fixture in the corner (I was raised by a pile queen and am either proud or ashamed to admit that I myself have become a pile queen as well).

I don't do a dramatic, pull-everything-out-of-the-house organizational overhaul. I just walk through each space and ask what doesn't need to come with me into fall.

Throw things away. Donate the clothes. Finish the products. Clear the surfaces. Deal with the weird drawer.

Less stuff, less visual clutter, less mental clutter.

6. Replace, replenish and restock

The reverse of decluttering: what have I been living without for absolutely no reason?

Recently, I finally replaced our wooden spoons because several were cracked and objectively past their prime. It took approximately five minutes to order new ones, yet I'd been looking at the old ones for over a year thinking, I really need to replace those.

This is my reminder to deal with all of those things at once. Refill the empty guest bathroom soap dispenser. Replace the ratty old towels. Restock the skincare you've been rationing. Bulk-order new socks. Replace the kitchen tool that broke six months ago. Throw away the sneakers with the hole in the toe.

Basically: stop making do with tiny annoyances that are incredibly easy to fix.

7. Close my boring life-admin loops

This is decidedly less fun than shopping, but it might give me the greatest sense of satisfaction.

When I was in college, I always got my car serviced and detailed before going back to school. I loved arriving on campus knowing it was clean, the oil had been changed, and there wasn't some maintenance issue waiting to become my problem in October.

Now I apply that logic to everything.

Car service. Dentist. Doctor. Returns. Prescriptions. Appointments. Paperwork. The email I've been meaning to send. The thing sitting on the counter because it requires one phone call that my ADHD refuses to let me make.

I use the extra time on my hands in August to go into fall with as few open loops floating around my brain as possible.

8. Commit to the back-to-school glow-up

This may be my favorite part of the entire ritual.

Growing up, I always got my hair done before going back to school. A fresh color & cut was absolutely an essential component of academic preparedness, and I stand by that logic.

Now I use the end of August to get ahead on all the beauty and self-care appointments that become frustratingly difficult to fit in once our schedule gets busy. Hair, facial, nails, massage, aesthetician, whatever is due.

Over the next couple of weeks, I have basically every appointment booked. Part of it is maintenance, but part of it is simply that it’s nice to start a new season feeling like the most put-together version of myself.

9. Go back-to-school shopping

There are very few childhood traditions I miss more than back-to-school shopping.

The fresh notebooks. The new pens. Picking out a first-day outfit. New clothes that made your existing wardrobe suddenly feel exciting again. I see absolutely no reason why we decided adults don't deserve this.

My grown-up version isn't a complete fall wardrobe overhaul, it's just a few things that make me excited for the season ahead.

I start by looking at my closet and figuring out what's actually missing. Maybe my favorite plain white tee needs replacing. Maybe I've been wanting a new pair of jeans in a trendy cut. Maybe there's a fall shoe I've been thinking about since last year. 

Back-to-school shopping was never really about needing all-new things. It was about the psychological thrill of showing up to a new season feeling refreshed. 

10. Give everything a clean slate

The final step is the most literal one.

Fresh sheets. Laundry done. Towels washed. Fridge cleaned out. Car washed. Apartment cleaned. Work bag emptied of old receipts and the fourteen lip products I’ve been looking for since March.

I love doing one big reset right before September so that everything feels ready at the same time. It's the adult equivalent of laying out your first-day outfit the night before school.

None of this actually changes who I am on September 1. I am not going to wake up suddenly more disciplined, more organized or mysteriously capable of maintaining Inbox Zero.

But I think that's why I've kept this ritual for so long. Back-to-school season was never really about becoming a new person. It was a chance to reset the conditions around yourself and make it a little easier to be the person you were trying to become.

These days, this just means fewer cracked wooden spoons, a more manageable calendar, a few routines back in place, and a fresh balayage.

Which, as far as I'm concerned, is still a pretty good way to start the year.