H·05
Habits & Behaviour
The Fresh Start Effect
People act on aspirations after a temporal landmark — a Monday, a birthday, a first of the month, a new job.
- Evidence
- solid
- Topic
- Habits
- Things to do
- 3
- Read
- 1 min
solidHow strong is the evidence?
Good evidence behind it, but fewer people have checked it independently.
- Dai, Milkman & Riis, Management Science, 2014
Why it works
A landmark puts a line between the old self who kept failing and the new self, which frees you from your own track record.
What to do about it
- Do not wait for January. Landmarks are manufacturable: the first day back, the day the quarter closes, the day after a big deadline.
- Start the thing on the landmark and keep the start absurdly small, so the landmark's energy is not the fuel.
- Name the line out loud: “from Monday, X.” The naming is what makes it a landmark.
Where people go wrong
Using landmarks as permanent deferral — “I'll start on the 1st” becomes a way of never starting.
Read next
- Temptation BundlingChain the thing you should do to the thing you want to do, and let the want carry both.solid
- The Reward Must Be NowPersistence is predicted by how much you enjoy the activity, not by how much you value the outcome.solid
- Give the Peak to the Hard ThingAnalytic performance peaks in the first hours after waking for most people; protect that window, and spend the trough on admin.solid
- Small Wins Run the DayThe strongest driver of a good working day is visible progress in meaningful work — ahead of recognition, incentives and clear goals.solid