How are your New Year’s resolutions coming, CAMB students? We are reaching the time of year where many New Year’s goals might be starting to taper off. As we all know, most goals set with the new year do not come to fruition. Here, we’ll discuss some of the discourse around New Year’s resolutions, including how the clean slate of the new year may actually be psychologically signifi- cant in helping you reach your goal. We’ll also of- fer some inspiration for graduate-school-themed goals you could aim for this year. Let this article be the motivational reminder you need to reinvigorate your resolutions!
New Year’s resolutions are a divisive topic. Many people love setting goals for the next calendar year, while others are more cynical about using January 1st as the start date for a change. The cynical may argue, if you want to make a change, why wait until the new year? Or, they might be turned off but how many people drop their goals once the year gets going, or even set the same resolution year after year. However, resolutioners may be onto some- thing with using the New Year as the start for their goals – it turns out that the time point at which you implement the goal could be a significant factor in your likelihood of success.
Katherine Milkman, PhD, a Wharton Professor, coined the term “The Fresh Start Effect” in a 2014 study investigating how important landmarks in time affect behavior changes (1). Since then, Milk- man has published several studies investigating the relationship between goal-motivated behav- ior changes and significant temporal landmarks. They examined the relationship between events like the start of the year, a birthday, or a holiday and interest in common behavior changes like diets or exercise plans, and found that participants were more likely to take action toward a goal immediately following one of these temporal landmarks (1). Further- more, participants more frequently chose to be remind- ed about a goal they set on a date significant to them over a random or sooner date. Dr. Milkman suggests that this is due in part to the feeling of a clean slate that comes with these timepoints, perhaps providing some separation between the ideas of a “past” and “future” you, which was supported by a study in which partici- pants indicated increased propensity to set goals when a life change felt more like a fresh start or big change (2). Together, these results suggest that a landmark like the New Year can help motivate you to set and start working toward a goal. However, it remains unclear if it truly aids in your success in achieving that goal.
So, if you’ve set a New Year’s resolution, it might be down to your own cold hard discipline and hard work from here. But, if you’ve yet to choose a goal to work on, consider the graduate school-related targets listed below:
Improve your work-life balance: Set defined working hours, remove email and Slack from your phone, or turn off notifications, resist checking email or Slack on weekends or evenings, keep all work out of your home (do computer work at your work desk or a third space)
Strengthen your mentee-mentor relationships: Request a meeting to update goals and needs with your mentor, reflect on your mentorship needs and how they may be changing…
Boost effective time management: Switch up your planning methods or reinvigorate your use of methods you have, try out digital planning options for project management like trello.com and notion.com, plan out the next week each Friday
Revamp your organization: Switch to or add on a digital lab notebook if your lab allows it, build in regular note-taking time to each day, reset and clean up your bench at the end of each day
Plan for post-graduation: Attend student group sessions for career exploration, browse the CAMB careers pages, connect with CAMB alumni in various career paths and begin information interviews
Prioritize mental health: Create a stable routine with rest, exercise, and social time, visit Penn Health and Wellness, check in with the BGS counselor
If you are interested in learning more about “The Fresh Start Effect”, Dr. Milkman can be found in various places discussing her work – check out her website here.
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