What is the fresh start effect and how you can start afresh this Monday

Perhaps the most underrated Fresh Start Day, if one could call it that, is Monday. (Image: Annie Spratt via Unsplash)

January 1 is usually the big day when millions of people decide to start something afresh. This could be finally going to the gym, giving up unhealthy habits like smoking, or working towards a career goal they'd set months earlier.

The beginning of every year marks a fresh start on the calendar, so it seems appropriate to start something new on that day too. Dr Katherine Milkman and her colleagues call this motivation the Fresh Start Effect - when special days in our lives inspire us to believe we are re-starting with a clean slate.

Milkman is a professor at the Wharton School and is best known for her writings on behavioural change.

"Fresh start" days also serve as watersheds, when we take a step back to look at the big picture of where our lives are headed - this, too, can inspire us to take charge and course-correct. The much memefied New Year New Me concept stems from this belief.

To be sure, whatever endeavour you undertake on January 1 – start eating healthy, stop smoking, begin a workout – can be embarked upon on any other day of the year too. It’s just that certain dates make us believe that a new era is upon us, and that we can take charge from this point on.

This is, of course, all in our heads…

While January 1 is the big one, other dates serve as good starting points to turn around our lives too: a birthday, for instance, an anniversary, or even the first of a new month.

But perhaps the most underrated Fresh Start Day, if one could call it that, is Monday. If you look beyond the much-glorified Monday Morning Blues, it’s the day that presents you with a new start like no other.

Chances are you’ve subconsciously known this if you’ve been jotting down your to-dos for the week or have suffered Sunday Night Insomnia driven by the anxiety of the new week.

That’s because the average Monday tends to be a lot more powerful than, say, the average first of the month and definitely more than January 1. According to Milkman, who calls it the Day of the Week Effect, this is because of the way the weekends stand out as being very different than the rest of the week.

“We all really notice the weekends,” she tells Stephen J Dubner, co-author of the Freakonomics books and host of the Freakonomics podcast. “… there is some distinction that’s very real between the weekends and the week. Monday, you haven’t been at your desk in a while, hopefully, if you had a good weekend and you managed to set everything aside. That juice runs out a little bit by the 17th Zoom call of the week, but I feel excited at the beginning of a week.”

This is true. But what makes Monday a bigger deal for even the laziest of us is the fact that there are four to five of them every month, and at least 52 every year. That’s 52 new opportunities to hit reset and begin afresh.

The simplest way to do this is to bring in the Fresh Start energy you reserve for the big days to Monday.

1. See every Monday as January 1

This is the day when you put your mistakes behind you and move on. Sure, analyse what you did wrong in the previous week but don’t spend too much time delving on glitches.

2. Only focus on this week’s progress

Say, you were so unproductive last week that you’ve had to carry forward half of your to-do list into this week. That’s ok. See that list for what it is worth – a roster of this week’s tasks – and just focus on completing that. Spending too much time on past failures can blunt this week’s achievements and worrying about the week after can demotivate and derail your current week.

3. Make the most of new beginnings

It’s easy to give up when you’ve fallen off the wagon and put off getting back in the saddle until the first of the next month. One of Milkman’s studies suggests that we are more likely to commit to a goal that's set at the beginning of the week.

So, sure you missed a week of gym or that cheat day turned into a cheat week. Instead of waiting for the beginning of the next month to get back on track, hit reset this Monday. You’ll be better for it.