Stop arriving at August exhausted, guilty, and behind.
This workbook helps you plan a summer you’ll actually feel good about.
Does this sound familiar?
You’ve been counting down to summer all semester. You need to rest — but you also have a list of projects you’re finally going to tackle. This is the summer you’ll do both.
Then August arrives.
You’re just as tired as when May ended. Half your list is untouched. And instead of feeling restored, you feel guilty — like you wasted the one stretch of time that was supposed to make things better.
You didn’t fail at summer. You just never had a plan that reflected your needs.
What if this summer could actually be different?
Not just less busy, but genuinely restorative. A summer where you make real progress on what matters, build in actual rest without guilt, and arrive in the fall feeling like yourself again.
That’s what the Summer Reset Workbook is designed to give you.
Introducing the Summer Reset Workbook
A simple, self-paced planning workbook built specifically for academics. In about 3 hours, you’ll walk away with a clear, realistic summer plan that prioritizes what you actually need, including rest.
Here’s how it works:
Step 1: Create Your Summer Vision
Define what you want this summer to feel like, not just what you want to get done. This big-picture foundation shapes everything that follows, so you’re planning around your life instead of just your professional to-do list.
Step 2: Identify Your Summer Priorities
Get clear on what actually matters this summer. You’ll map out your personal and professional priorities and then narrow them down even more, so you can focus on what’s most important.
Step 3: Plan Your Summer Projects
Turn your priorities into a concrete, doable plan. Stop relying on vague intentions to guide you and create a clear set of goals you can actually feel confident about finishing.
Step 4: Build Your Summer Schedule
Put everything that made it onto your list on the calendar, including the personal stuff. Make sure it all fits and feels good. If not, time to revise.
Step 5: Develop Your Rest Rituals
Rest doesn’t happen by accident, especially for academics who are used to nonstop productivity. This step helps you plan for it intentionally, so you stop feeling guilty every time you’re not working and come back in the fall feeling recharged.
This Workbook Is for You If…
You’re a faculty member, academic specialist, postdoc, or grad student who’s done arriving at August feeling like you wasted your summer. You want a break that’s genuinely restorative, not just a slightly less busy version of the semester, and you’re ready to actually plan for that, instead of hoping it happens on its own.
This isn’t for you if you’re looking for a rigid productivity system or a way to cram more into your summer. The Summer Reset is about doing less, with more intentionality.
Want Extra Support?
The workbook is designed to be self-paced and standalone — most people find it’s all they need. But if you want a thinking partner to help you work through your plan, you can add a one-time Summer Reset Strategy Session for just $99.50 (normally $199) when you purchase the workbook.
It’s a focused 60-minute call where we’ll build your summer plan together, troubleshoot what’s gotten in the way in past summers, and make sure you leave with a plan you actually feel confident about.
Frequently Asked Questions
Each of the five steps takes about 30–60 minutes, so you can finish the whole thing in a single focused sitting or spread it out over a week. Either way works. The workbook is yours to use however you prefer.
Not at all. It’s designed for anyone navigating an academic summer — faculty, academic specialists, grad students, postdocs, teachers, independent scholars. If you have more freedom in summer than during the semester and struggle to make the most of it, this is for you.
It’s a Microsoft Word document, so you can download it, type directly into it, and reuse it every summer. No subscription, no app, no internet connection required.
Yes, and that’s exactly what the Summer Reset Strategy Session is for. You can add a 60-minute 1:1 call at 50% off (just $99.50, normally $199) when you purchase the workbook at checkout. It’s the fastest way to get a personalized plan with support built in. Add it at checkout →
Summer gives academics something rare: stretches of unstructured time with fewer institutional obligations. That’s exactly what a sabbatical offers — and exactly why both are so hard to plan well. The Summer Reset uses the same intentional planning framework I developed for sabbaticals, adapted for the shorter, messier reality of summer break.
Send me an email at bethany(at)bethanywilinski.com — I’m happy to help.