Katie Lee Biegel’s Real-Life Hacks to Reset Your Routine This Fall

You know that feeling when September’s in full swing and suddenly you’re supposed to transform from “summer you” into “organized adult who has their life together”? The transition from loose summer schedules to the chaos of school routines can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re trying to juggle work deadlines, extracurriculars, and the basic human need to feed your family actual meals.

On All on the Table, host Katie Lee Biegel gets real about that back-to-school reset. She’s not offering Pinterest-perfect solutions or unrealistic TikTok routines—just practical hacks she swears by to keep her household running and her sanity intact.

Write down your goals

Most productivity advice assumes you’re going to become someone who religiously reviews their goal lists and tracks progress with color-coded spreadsheets. Biegel takes a more realistic approach: just get the thoughts out of your head and onto paper, period.

“What I like to do is write down my goals, and I think that’s really helpful, even if I don’t even go back and look at it, even if I just write them down, just to get the thoughts out,” she explains. The magic isn’t in creating the perfect system, but in the act of clarifying what you truly want to accomplish.

This works because writing forces you to move from vague anxiety (“I need to get my life together”) to specific intentions (“I want to write another novel this fall”). Research backs it up—people who put their goals in writing are far more likely to follow through than those who just keep them swirling in their heads.

The best part? It doesn’t have to be fancy. You don’t need a bullet journal or an app subscription. A scrap of paper, a Notes app doc, even the back of a receipt will do the trick. The point is to get the thought out of your head and into a place where it feels real. If you’re more visual, try brain-dumping on sticky notes or making a quick voice memo. Whatever feels easiest is what you’ll actually keep doing.

Make detailed daily schedules

Some days feel so jammed you don’t even know where to start. Instead of spinning, Biegel leans on a hyper-detailed plan. “When I have days that are really busy, I actually make a schedule for myself, and I find that helps me stay on track,” she says. “I’ll write down the times of what I’m going to do, everything that day. I will be very detailed about it and very specific on the time and I stick to it.”

It might sound extra, but mapping out your day takes the pressure off. Studies show that breaking a big workload into smaller blocks makes it easier to follow through and way less overwhelming. Once it’s all laid out, you don’t have to waste energy deciding what to do next.

The trick is to keep your plan specific enough to steer you but flexible enough to survive real life. Instead of writing “work on project,” pin down “9:30–10:15 finish slides.” That way you know exactly what counts as progress. Build in meals and breaks so you don’t find yourself rage-snacking at 3 p.m. because you forgot lunch. And if something runs over, just nudge the rest of your schedule forward. 

Do a strategic ‘fall clean’ of your kitchen

Spring cleaning gets all the hype, but Biegel swears by a fall reset in the kitchen. Start with the obvious offenders. Pull everything out of the fridge and check expiration dates. Toss that Worcestershire sauce you forgot you owned and the ketchup bottle with a crusty lid that no one wants to touch. It may feel a little savage in the moment, but clearing the junk makes room for the food you’ll actually eat.

Next up are your spices. Most people don’t realize they lose flavor after about six months. Biegel suggests buying big jars of the ones you reach for every week and smaller ones of the random stuff you use once in a blue moon. It’s not wasteful. It’s the difference between food that tastes bland and food that tastes like you meant it.

The whole point of this reset is to make your kitchen usable. When you open the pantry or fridge, you should be able to grab what you need fast and trust it’s still good. Cooking is way less stressful when you’re not playing condiment roulette or realizing your paprika turned into dust years ago. And it’s not just about avoiding stress—research shows that cleaning and decluttering can actually boost mood, improve focus, and make you feel more in control of your day. 

Want more? Tune into All on the Table with Katie Lee Biegel for the rest of her back-to-school reset tips, streaming now wherever you get your podcasts.

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