Every year, starting around mid-December, the talk of New Year’s resolutions begin. People give themselves a few weeks to intoxicate, eat poorly, be a slob and do whatever they please before attempting to execute their new goals and life plans. As I started to think about my own goals for the new year, I started to wonder: why wait until the new year? Why do I feel so inclined to “resolve” my life only starting in January, and not when I initially see a problem? Wasting away nearly a month for a calendar date to declare that it is time I start my new chapter has recently felt strange to me.
Are New Year’s resolutions just a hidden form of procrastination disguised with an external layer of motivation?
In the article “Why Are We Drawn To Fresh Starts?,” Megan Anna Neff, Ph.D explores the psychology behind why we feel so inclined to wait until the new year to begin resolutions, a theory called the “Fresh Start Effect.” This concept was explored by behavioral scientists Hengchen Dai, Katherine Milkman and Jason Riis, revealing that temporal landmarks, such as the start of a new year, birthdays, or even the beginning of a new week, boost motivation and goal setting. These psychological landmarks entice separation from our “old self,” boosting efficiency and intrinsic motivation (inherent satisfaction or motivation). This before and after effect then allows us to think of our new year as a new slate, and an easier introductory period for goals.
Although this effect may sound good on paper, as it gives us motivation when often needed, it also provides a space for us to procrastinate. That awkward space in December, when I have accumulated a plan for my new year starting the first day of January, often comes as a struggle to me. I want to give myself time to relax and prepare for whatever lofty goal I have in store for myself, but I also feel as though if I made it less about the new year, it could possibly be less stressful, and I could be better prepared for. For example, if I tell myself that I will run five miles every morning starting January first, why should I not start training before then?
Dr. Neff also explains the complications and challenges within the “Fresh Start Effect,” especially “All-or-Nothing Thinking.” Fresh starts are useful while they often provide a sense of release from past mistakes, but it is also easy to miscalculate small slip ups as pure disaster, and deem that goal “ruined.”
Whether it is captioning your instagram post “new year new me” or curating a pinterest board in hopes of fulfilling your 2026 “rebranding,” trying to completely reinvent yourself behind the motivation of a “fresh start” never goes as planned. Dr. Neff expressed this by explaining how her brain convinces her something (be it a goal, the job, or a relationship) is “ruined,” and then she decides “I’ll just wait for the next fresh start.”
With ultimatum resolutions, it is also common for people to fall back on shame instead of persistence. On the other hand, if you stop, and ask yourself daily on how to sustainably move toward a goal, such as building up running mileage, your mental and physical well being will improve.
Circling back to the central question: Are New Year’s resolutions some skewed form of procrastination? I think it is a double edged sword to be fought.
On one hand, it provides a not-so-balanced approach at achieving goals, which are possibly long dreamed of but were kept unfulfilled for the sake of “waiting for the right time to start,” or needing “one more day of rest and relaxation.” The calendar date of Jan. 1 serves as a blank slate for ideals to trickle down into the form of intrinsic motivation. Right or wrong, it helps us kickstart goals that many of us have long put off.
Is it possible to counteract this motivation with something possibly stronger? Rather than the weight of a blank slate, the outcomes of our goals are what we really should be honing in on most of all. Practicing turning our goals into reality by making slow and focused decisions is arguably the right way to go about resolving our lives, not holding off until the start of the week or the first day of the new year.
Perhaps instead of a cliché New Year’s resolution this year, like staying tidy and keeping fit, I’ll make mine to start working towards my goals on a Tuesday night at 4:28 p.m., even if it holds no special meaning or “fresh start.”
