My simple "restart engine" method after a hol

I was away in Mallorca, Spain with the family for 10 days this month.

One thing I love about Spain? They love an mid-afternoon siesta.

I’m only getting back into a nice working rhythm today. Travelling, even shorthaul, is tiring. All the Spanish sun and late night cervezas didn’t help!

Usually when I come back from holidays, I keep things simple. I call it “Restart Engine Week”.

Sure some productivity boffins pontificate about “eating the frog” and “hitting the ground running” but I’d rather warm up slowly.

So, on Monday, I opened up Apple Notes and bashed out a list of 3–5 things I wanted to do. Here’s a sample of what I worked back in Ireland:

Restarted my early morning writing routine. Even thirty minutes is enough time to write an email like this one or a few social media posts for LinkedIn and Substack.

Scheduled a few videos about how I’m using AI for my YouTube channel. I recorded these and briefed them to a video editor before I went away.

Worked on my vibe coding project. I’m building an AI news aggregator with Cursor. It’s part fun and part a way of keeping up with how AI is changing the web.

Added 3 more lessons to PromptWritingStudio. That’s my newsletter course that teaches the art of writing prompts for ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. This week I added lessons about using gameplay and meta-language prompts.

On a normal week, I’d get much more done than that. But the “what” is less important than gaining some momentum after a break.

If you need help gaining momentum with using AI, check out PromptWritingStudio. I regularly update it with new lessons for creators and business owners using AI. You can digest the lessons in between siestas!