By Brent Reed, PharmD, BCCP, FAHA
The fresh start of a new year is the perfect time to reflect on the past 12 months and set goals for growth. Although many New Year’s resolutions are broken within the first few weeks, research suggests that simply making a resolution can increase your chances of being successful by up to 10-fold.1
Beyond deciding to make a positive change in the new year, what can you do to ensure those resolutions last? Based on research from goal-setting theory, a number of factors can increase your chances of a successful New Year’s resolution. Among some of the most important are the specificity and difficulty of your goals, as well as the feedback you receive in your pursuit of them.2 Below are some practical ways in which you can capitalize on each of these key factors.
Describe it
One of the most common reasons for failing to achieve a goal is being unable to describe it with enough specificity to determine how to achieve it. For example, perhaps one of your goals is to complete a research project in the upcoming year to increase your chances of securing a fellowship or residency. If only “research project” is written on your to-do list, you may be reluctant to work on it because it represents such a monumental task.
Instead, do as David Allen suggests in his best-selling text on productivity, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, and get into the habit of describing complex projects in terms of their next actions, or the immediate next step for moving the project forward. Potential next actions for a research project might include brainstorming research questions in your areas of interest or researching faculty members at your school who are doing research that intrigues you. By breaking complex goals down into specific, achievable tasks, you can more easily determine how to make progress on them.
Do the hard stuff
In terms of difficulty, most people are able to set challenging long-term goals, but sometimes struggle with making great decisions about when, where, and how to work on them. Although the verdict is still out on whether willpower is a finite resource, most research suggests that you only have a fixed capacity to take on the most challenging tasks of the day.3 This effect can be buffered by things like mood and attitude, but it also provides an explanation for why tackling all of those easy tasks on your to-do list first may actually make it harder to take on the more challenging ones later on.
One strategy to overcome the temptation to focus on easy tasks first is to plan for your most difficult tasks by setting aside time on your calendar for them. Most people are great at using their calendar to block off meetings and appointments, but why not also use it to dedicate time to your most difficult goals? By committing yourself ahead of time, you thwart the risk of choosing the easier tasks on your list. Also, to take advantage of the buffering effects of mood and attitude, schedule those difficult tasks at a time when your mood and motivation are typically the highest.
Get motivated by feedback
Finally, feedback on your progress in the pursuit of a goal has an additive effect on the likelihood of success.2 Feedback can take on a variety of forms, from asking a friend to keep you accountable (or, in the case of a resolution to exercise more, joining you!) to using productivity planners (such as a bullet journal, or mobile apps that provide you with real-time updates on your progress, such as ToDoist or Trello). Feedback provides a helpful reminder of your ongoing commitment to a goal, and it can serve a motivating role by showing you just how far you have come.
If you never set New Year’s resolutions or you have been unsuccessful in the past, don’t fret. With a few proven strategies like the ones described above, you can be well on your way to accomplishing your most challenging goals in the upcoming year.
References
1. Norcross JC, Mrykalo MS, Blagys MD. Auld lang syne: success predictors, change processes, and self-reported outcomes of New Year’s resolvers and nonresolvers. J Clin Psychol. 2002;58(4):397–405.
2. Locke EA, Latham GP. Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation. Am Psychol. 2002;57(9):705.
3. Muraven M. Ego depletion: Theory and evidence. In: Ryan RM, editor. The Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2012:111–26.