How to Keep New Year's Resolutions: What the Research Says

To keep a New Year’s resolution, the research points to a few specific moves. Phrase it as something to start or do more of, not something to quit. Tell one person who will check in with you. Turn it into an if-then plan for the moment you’ll need it, and when you slip, do it again at the next chance instead of starting over. In a 2020 experiment with more than 1,000 people, resolutions phrased as something to move toward were rated successful 58.9% of the time, against 47.1% for things to avoid (Oscarsson et al., 2020). These studies relied on people’s own reports, so treat the steps below as ways to improve your odds, not a guarantee.

Resolutions work more often than their reputation

People joke that resolutions are dead by February. The studies are kinder than that.

In a 2002 study, researchers followed 159 people who made New Year’s resolutions and 123 people who wanted to change a similar problem but planned to start later. They phoned everyone over six months. By the end, 46% of the resolvers were still continuously successful, compared with 4% of the people who didn’t make a resolution (Norcross et al., 2002). People chose their own group, so this can’t prove the resolution caused the difference. It does suggest that deciding on a clear start date is worth something.

The 2020 experiment from Sweden followed people for a full year. Of those who answered at the end, 55% considered themselves successful (Oscarsson et al., 2020). The most common resolutions were about physical health, weight loss and eating habits. Two things to keep in mind: success was self-rated, and the volunteers signed up online, so they were probably more motivated than most people. The authors say both of these limit the findings.

Why January 1 helps

Researchers have measured the pull of a clean start. They looked at Google searches for “diet,” gym visits and sign-ups to commit to goals, and all three went up after temporal landmarks. Those included the start of a new year, but also a new week, month or semester, a birthday and holidays (Dai et al., 2014). The authors think these dates mark off a new period in your mental calendar. Past slips get filed under the old period, and you start looking at your life as a whole, which makes you more willing to go after big goals. That’s their proposed explanation, not something the study tested directly.

So January 1 can give you a boost to start, and if you fall off in February, you don’t have to wait a year. The next Monday or the first of the month is a fresh start too.

Five things that make a resolution more likely to stick

1. Write it as something to do, not something to stop

“Stop eating junk food” is an avoidance goal. “Eat a vegetable with lunch every day” is an approach goal. In the Swedish experiment, approach goals did better, 58.9% against 47.1% (Oscarsson et al., 2020). People picked their own wording rather than being assigned one, so this is a comparison, not proof. It costs nothing to rewrite your resolution, though.

A few rewrites:

Instead of	Try
Stop scrolling at night	Read 10 pages in bed before I pick up my phone
Quit skipping workouts	Walk for 20 minutes after work on weekdays
Stop spending so much	Bring lunch from home three days a week
Don’t snap at my kids	Take three slow breaths before I answer when I’m frustrated

2. Tell one person and let them check in

The same experiment randomly split people into three groups. One group got information about social support, named a support person and had monthly follow-ups. That group rated itself more successful than both the group with no extra support and a third group that also got goal-setting lessons, interim goals and extra emails (Oscarsson et al., 2020). The extra lessons didn’t help, and the authors suggest that more specific targets may have created more chances to feel like you’d failed.

So skip the 12-step plan. Pick one person and ask them to text you on the first of each month: “How’s the resolution going?”

3. Picture it, then picture what will get in the way

There’s a technique called mental contrasting with implementation intentions. First you imagine the future you want. Then you think honestly about the obstacle that is most likely to stop you, and you make an if-then plan for it. A 2021 review of 21 studies with 15,907 participants found it helped people reach their goals, with a small to moderate effect. The authors flagged some publication bias, so the true effect may be smaller (Wang et al., 2021).

Try it with this four-line template:

• What I want: Feel stronger by summer.
• How it would feel: Carrying the groceries up the stairs without stopping.
• What will get in my way: I get home tired and sit on the couch.
• My if-then plan: If I walk in the door after work, then I’ll change into my sneakers before I sit down.

If you’d like help with the picturing step, this future self visualization script walks you through it.

4. Make the daily part tiny and tie it to a cue

Habit researchers suggest choosing a simple action you can do every day toward your goal, and planning when and where you’ll do it. A cue inside a routine you already have, like “after I have lunch,” makes a convenient, stable starting point (Gardner et al., 2012). In the study behind that advice, it took an average of about 66 days for a new habit to level off, so plan for early March, not mid-January. The 21/90 rule guide covers that timeline in more detail.

5. When you slip, come straight back

In the same habit research, missing the occasional chance to do the behavior didn’t seriously set people back, and progress soon picked up after one missed day (Gardner et al., 2012). Do it at the next chance and keep your count going. If a whole week falls apart, use the next fresh start, like a Monday or the first of the month, and begin again from there.

A one-page resolution plan

Copy this onto a card or into your notes app before January 1:

1. My resolution, as something to do: ____
2. Why it matters to me this year: ____
3. The smallest daily version: ____
4. My cue (after I ____): ____
5. The obstacle most likely to stop me: ____
6. If that happens, then I will: ____
7. My check-in person: ____
8. If I miss a day, I’ll restart on: the next chance, or the next Monday at the latest.

Not sure what to choose? Looking back at this year first helps. These year-end reflection questions will show you what’s worth carrying forward, and the days left in the year counter shows how much time you have to try a small version before January.

Today’s small step

Take the resolution you’re already thinking about and rewrite it as something to do rather than something to stop. Then add one if-then line for the moment it’s most likely to fall apart. That’s two sentences, and it takes less than 10 minutes.