Why do New Year's resolutions fail, and what works better?

The first of January has a lot to answer for. It invites a whole new self, delivered in one go, starting tomorrow, after a fortnight of cheese. By the middle of the month, most of those new selves have quietly gone home.

The good news is that the failures are fairly predictable, and so are the fixes.

Why they wobble

They are vague. "Get fitter", "read more", "be less on my phone". There is no moment when a vague resolution asks anything specific of you, so there is no moment when you keep it.

There are too many. Five resolutions at once means five new behaviours competing for the same evenings. One of them usually wins and the others slip, and then the whole project feels like a failure.

They are about stopping things. "No more takeaways." "Stop snacking." Resolutions framed as avoidance give you nothing to do, only something to resist.

They are all-or-nothing. One missed day in week two becomes proof that the year is ruined. We cover that particular trap in all-or-nothing thinking.

Frame it as something to do

A large study from Stockholm University and Linköping University followed more than a thousand people with New Year's resolutions for a year. Published in PLOS ONE, it found that resolutions framed as approach goals, adding something new, succeeded more often than avoidance goals, quitting or stopping something.

So instead of "stop eating lunch at my desk", try "eat lunch outside on weekdays". Instead of "less scrolling at night", try "read a chapter in bed". The second version gives you an action, and actions are easier to repeat than refusals.

Attach a when and where

The psychologists Gollwitzer and Sheeran reviewed research on implementation intentions, plans that spell out in advance when, where and how you will act, in the form "if situation Y, then I will do X". Across 94 tests, forming those plans had a medium-to-large positive effect on reaching goals.

In practice:

• "If it's Tuesday or Thursday at 7, then I'm at the pool."
• "If I sit down with my morning coffee, then I write one page."
• "If it's Sunday afternoon, then I cook something for the week."

The resolution stops being a hope and becomes an appointment.

Pick one, and make it small

Choose one resolution, the one you would most like to have kept by next December. Make the first version so small it feels slightly silly: one swim a week, ten pages a day. You can always add more once it is running. It is far easier to grow a habit that exists than to rescue one that collapsed under its own ambition. We look at sizing in small goals.

You don't need January

Nothing magical happens on the first of the month. A resolution started on a wet Wednesday in March is just as valid, and has the advantage of not coinciding with leftover panettone.