The 90-Day Reset: How 3 Months Offline Reinvigorated My Creativity

Posted on by J.J. Hamilton

2026 has been framed as this kind of Great Reset. We’re living in a world post-pandemic, post-AI having been introduced and post-slop. You can’t go too far without stumbling upon some kind of digital slop that’s been shambled together using some form of AI. At first we embraced bizarre images of Will Smith eating spaghetti, but it’s clear to see just how far AI has come since 2023. In 2026, Will Smith eating spaghetti looks uncannily perfect but soulless. Now, more than ever before, people are turning against AI. It’s producing low-quality rubbish with the aim of entertaining us in more mindless ways than before – all while consuming buckets (literally) of electricity.

Used wisely, AI can be a great tool. I’ve used it countless times in my full-time job as a teacher, asking it to create worksheets and to level up my lesson plans. It’s saved me so much time but, in many ways, AI has gone too far. People are getting fed up of being served mindless slop on their social media streams, where it’s being used to produce all of the creative ventures that AI was supposed to give us more time to do ourselves.

All of a sudden, being chronically online feels a lot less fun. That’s not to say that we need to delete our social media forever (limiting our usage will do just fine). Sometimes, all we need is a little Digital Sabbatical. 90 days of R&R, away from a digital sphere of influence, to see how your brain and body responds.

That’s what I did. Here’s what I learned.

Lesson 1: Maintenance Mode

I want to do everything. I’ve said as much so many times before; I want to do absolutely everything that I want to. Life is too short to be unambitious – I want to do every single thing that I put my mind to, whether that’s: hobbies, exercising, teaching, writing, blogging—

—It’s a lot, isn’t it?

Shortly after the New Year, when my next blog post was due to be published, I paused for a second. Suddenly, I realised that blogging was not the most productive thing that I could do in that moment. I had to take a step back, recalibrate, and figure out how it fit into my busy life in 2026.

Let me put it another way.

You know how in fitness, sometimes you have to stop building muscle and just maintain your current weight? You might hit a plateau so, instead of continuing to add plates until you snap, you take a deload week. You focus on mobility. You let your central nervous system recover. My 90 day break was a de-load for my brain.

Or, sometimes you need to forgo the gym and regain energy after work by sitting in front of the TV while gorging yourself on junk food.

Whatever you do when you take a break, it’s important that you stop writing, pause, and think. That’s when I entered Maintenance Mode. I spent three months considering:

  • Does writing still bring me joy?
  • Why am I writing? Who am I trying to help?
  • What do I want to write about?

Maintenance Mode is essential for anything that you do in life – whether it’s full-time or a hobby.

Lesson 2: The Three-Month Audit

Every year, you should spend some time recalibrating your life. Typically this should happen once a quarter: in March, June, September and December. As luck would have it, my Maintenance Mode finished as March came to a close. Because of this, I had a lot of time to conduct an in-depth audit of my life.

If you’ve already read my post about taking a mid-year audit, you’ll know what to expect, but I had four areas to consider:

  • The Personal Audit: Where am I in relation to my goals?

Ideally I want to commit more time to learning Spanish, staying healthy, and writing.

  • The Habits Audit: Am I doing everything that I can to achieve those goals?

I’ve continued to learn Spanish everyday, have been doing well at going to the gym and bouldering, but I’ve not done a lot of writing lately. I need to recommit to this.

  • The Finances & Future Audit: Am I putting my money where I want it to be, to help Future Josh?

My Emergency Fund is steadily increasing, especially now that I’ve bought everything that I’d like in the short-term. Fewer distractions mean more savings.

  • The Intentions Audit: Have I made one, big, change to reaffirm to my goals and aspirations?

I need to do 30 minutes of writing a day to ensure that my blog continues to have meaningful, weekly content.

Lesson 3: The Attention Dividend

When you give up a daily or weekly habit for three months, it can lead to time wasted. I could have spent 30 minutes of blog-writing-a-day on my phone, doom scrolling.

The reality was quite different. I’ve barely touched Instagram in all of this time; I’ve not been on Facebook at all, and I now only visit one profile on Twitter to stay updated on all things pop culture.

Instead, all of that extra energy has gone to two places: health & fitness and work.

Since reaffirming my usual New Year’s Goals, I’ve aligned my focus on my journey with exercise, frequenting my climbing gym 2-3 times a week, and visiting the regular gym 3 times a week. And my effort is being rewarded – I’m seeing noticeable shifts in my strength, now being able to lift far heavier than I had before.

As for work, I wrote at Christmas about the journey of becoming Head of History, and what the first three months will entail for any new Head of Department. It’s a lot of extra work, including managing people, ordering resources and setting deadlines to ensure the best for our students, but it’s been so rewarding. So, I’ve been getting up slightly earlier, going to bed slightly earlier, and ensuring that I do the very best job that I can.

And, you know what? All of this has led to greater mental clarity. I feel like a better Head of History and a fitter, healthier version of myself. I feel like my creativity has been reinvigorated and I’m ready to do my best once more.

Why not try your own creative reset? Take a Micro-Hiatus from whatever habits you’re currently employing for your own little Digital Sabbatical. Make time for an Audit to assess where you’re at and what you need to do differently to best achieve your goals. It doesn’t need to be three months long, but it does need to be long enough for you to reassess where your life is at, where you’re going, and what you need to do to get where you need to be.

Let me know if you try your own Digital Sabbatical in the comments below.

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