How to stay motivated after the second week of January

Most New Year’s resolutions die by the second Friday of January, and apparently there’s even a name for it: Quitter’s Day.

Whilst I won’t claim to have always achieved my resolutions, I do understand that motivation fades as life resumes. My solution has always been to treat resolutions like a data problem, rather than a willpower problem.

In fact, for the last several years, I’ve focused on building repeatable, data-driven processes instead.

Here’s what helped me stay consistent:

• I try to build repeatable behaviours: Example: Not “finish a course” → “study 25 minutes first thing in the morning.”
• I start small: 10 pages every day beats 50 pages once… and nothing for the rest of the month.  
• I track habits: What I measure gets repeated. I’ve found that simple tracking beats “perfect” planning.
• I try to have fun: If it’s boring, my resolutions will, without a doubt, fail. I always try to choose something that makes me want to come back to it tomorrow.
• I allow for noise: When I show up with 33 per cent energy, that still counts for me. Bad days are part of the data.
• I play the long game: My mindset is that any new habit is a marathon, not a sprint.

And yes, I’ll say it again, improve by 1 per cent every day, and over a year you’re almost 37× better (thanks to Atomic Habits for popularising the idea).