The Fresh Start Effect: Using Temporal Landmarks to Restart Motivation

Why do so many people resolve to change on January 1st, at the start of a month, or on a Monday? It is not mere convention. Research has identified a genuine psychological phenomenon — the fresh start effect — in which temporal landmarks make people more motivated to pursue goals. Understanding it lets you deliberately harness these moments rather than waiting for them.

What the Fresh Start Effect Is

The fresh start effect, documented by researchers Hengchen Dai, Katherine Milkman, and Jason Riis, describes the finding that people are more likely to take action toward their goals following temporal landmarks — dates that stand out as the beginning of a new period. Their research found that searches for the word "diet," gym visits, and the creation of new goals all spiked after these landmarks: the start of a new year, month, and week, as well as after birthdays, holidays, and other meaningful dates.

These moments act as psychological dividing lines. They separate the "old you" from a "new you," creating a sense of a clean slate on which new behavior can be built.

Why Temporal Landmarks Motivate

Two mechanisms appear to drive the effect.

They relegate past failures to an old chapter. A temporal landmark creates a psychological break with the past. Previous failures — the abandoned diet, the missed workouts, the unfinished project — feel like they belong to a former self, on the other side of the dividing line. This frees you from the discouragement of past setbacks and restores the optimism needed to try again. The new period feels like a chance to be a different person.

They interrupt the everyday and prompt big-picture thinking. Landmarks disrupt the routine flow of days and create a moment of stepping back to view life from a higher vantage. This shift from the day-to-day to the big picture makes goals more salient and motivates action toward them. In the ordinary rush of days, long-term goals fade into the background; a landmark brings them back into focus.

The Double-Edged Nature

The fresh start effect has a downside worth understanding. Because landmarks are so motivating, people often wait for them — "I will start on Monday," "I will get serious in the new year" — using the future landmark as an excuse to delay action now. The anticipation of a fresh start can become a reason to postpone. The effect is a tool to be used, not an excuse to wait for.

There is also the familiar collapse of New Year's resolutions: the motivation a landmark provides is real but temporary. A fresh start supplies the initial push, but sustaining the behavior afterward requires the ordinary machinery of habit formation, environment design, and systems. The landmark opens the door; what keeps you walking through it is everything else.

How to Use the Fresh Start Effect Deliberately

Time new habits to landmarks. When you want to begin a new behavior, launching it at a temporal landmark gives it an initial motivational boost. The start of a week, month, or year, or a personally meaningful date, lends momentum to the beginning.

Create your own landmarks. You do not have to wait for the calendar. Any date can be made into a fresh start: the first day of a new job, a move, the day after a significant event, or simply a date you decide to designate as a beginning. Framing a moment as a new chapter activates the effect regardless of whether the calendar agrees.

Use landmarks to recover from lapses. When you have fallen off a habit, a fresh start can help you resume without the weight of the lapse. Rather than viewing a broken streak as failure, treat the next landmark — even the next Monday, or simply tomorrow — as a clean slate to begin again. This prevents a single lapse from becoming permanent abandonment.

Do not wait for the perfect moment. The most important caution: do not let the appeal of a future fresh start delay you now. If you can create a fresh start today by simply deciding to, do that rather than postponing to a more "official" landmark. The best time to start is usually now, framed as a beginning.

Pair the fresh start with a system. Because the motivational boost fades, use the fresh start to install habits, routines, and environmental changes that will sustain the behavior after the initial enthusiasm passes. The landmark launches; the system sustains.

Conclusion

Temporal landmarks — new years, months, weeks, birthdays, and any date you designate as a beginning — genuinely boost motivation by separating you from past failures and prompting big-picture thinking. This fresh start effect is a real and useful tool. Harness it by timing new behaviors to landmarks, creating your own when needed, and using them to recover from lapses — but do not let the promise of a future fresh start become an excuse to delay, and always pair the initial boost with the systems that sustain change after the motivation fades.

Further Reading

• Katherine Milkman, How to Change (2021)