Why Your New Year's Resolutions Need 'Cues,' According to Science

Thanks to my gig teaching spin classes, I have a front-row seat to a reliable annual phenomenon: My classes are packed for the first few weeks of the year as people make New Year's resolutions—but by mid-February, I'm back to teaching normal-sized groups of people who are grateful the "January joiners" have cleared out. I'm always sad to see the new faces go, though, because I do think it's possible to set a New Year's resolution and stick to it, even if it's not the norm.

There are plenty of self-betterment goals you can set as a new year approaches, both in and out of the gym, but no matter what you endeavor to do, it's important to have an implementation strategy that ensures you'll actually get it done. One way you can better situate yourself for success is by attaching "cues" to your resolutions. Here's why it works, and how to do it.

How to tie your New Year's resolutions to cues

The more specific your goals are, the better they'll turn out. This is true for pretty much everything, which is why I recommend SMART goals for everything from studying to mapping out your personal productivity roadmap. For the unfamiliar, a SMART goal is a well-defined goal that includes specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound elements, like, "I will meal prep four meals per week every week for the first three months of the year, then determine if I have the capacity to add more or should stay at four." Already, you can see how that's better than, "I will start meal prepping this year"—but SMART goals are just one option and we have more to explore.

If you wake up on a Saturday morning and want to tidy up your living space, you'll have more success defining a room you want to clean up than attempting to just generally "clean the house," right? When it comes to New Year's resolutions, that specificity is important, since you're planning for 12 months of change and you'll need some kind of road map. Instead of saying your resolution is to "eat healthier," you should define what your diet is missing, then drill down on it: "I want to eat 10 more grams of protein every day," for example.

This is where cues are going to become valuable. Research shows that adding a cue—literally, a set trigger for action—to your goals can help you implement them better. On a smaller scale, I've recommended this kind of approach through something called "habit stacking," which you can do when you attach a habit you want to build (like answering all of your outstanding emails every day) with one you already have down pat (like making and drinking your morning coffee). You carry out the new habit while doing the old one and, over time, the new habit becomes engrained, too.

We rely on automatic processes to do the standard stuff in our daily lives, like how we just automatically turn on the coffee pot after waking up or grab keys on the way out the door. In those cases, waking up and walking out the door are actually cues that signal to our brains it's time to fulfill the second half of the process. Building your resolutions around cues will help them become second-nature habits, too. Here are some examples:

• If your New Year's resolution is to save a certain amount of money by December, make it something like, "When I spend $X, I'll move $Y into savings."

• If you want to be more productive at work, try turning the Pomodoro technique into a resolution: "When I work for 25 minutes, I'll take a five-minute break."

• "When I sit down at my desk, I'll answer all new emails."

• "When my meetings end, I'll take five minutes for meditation."

• "When work is over, I'll put on my sneakers and head straight to the gym."

• "When the 6:00 news ends, I'll call my mom."

Doing it this way combines the specificity needed for realistic goal-setting with the tried-and-true method of habit stacking, setting you up for more success than a vague desire to "work out more" or "call home more" ever could.

Why cues work for New Year's resolutions

There are a few reasons tying your resolutions to existing cues will help you stick with them. First, you're creating those automatic processes in your brain, basically Pavlov-ing your subconscious self into taking action whenever your trigger occurs. It will take a few weeks of conscious effort, yes, but you will already know when you're supposed to act on your new habit, which is half the battle.

Operating this way also leaves less room for error. If you don't have a defined schedule and cues in place, you can easily forget to do your new task—or maybe even actively avoid it. Sticking reminders into your calendar can help here, too, since the push alert can further emphasize that it's time to get down to business—plus, seeing a visual reminder that you have something to do can stop you from double-booking. If your cue to go to the gym is clocking out at 5, it will take a few weeks for you to get into the habit of declining an invitation to go for after-work drinks, so having it blocked out on the calendar every day after work will keep you on track. You'll need to set yourself up for success by taking a few steps to make sure your cue and action are possible, though. In the example above—"When work is over, I'll put on my sneakers..."—you need to have your gym shoes packed in your commute bag for it to work. If you have to go home between the office and the gym, you might not be so easily roused into going back out to complete the workout. My goal over the past few months has been to be more of a morning exerciser. I did a lot of lifestyle restructuring to make that possible, but among the most crucial steps was laying out my activewear, sneakers, and gym accessories the night before so when I wake up, all I have to do is put them on and leave.

Stick with your cues, but give yourself some space those first few weeks. You might find that the timing you set up doesn't work well with your existing schedule. You just won't stick to the goal as well if you can't make it work. Research shows that if you're following the cue method, it will take about two months, on average, for the habit to form, so use that time to take note of what's working, what isn't, and what could be changed. If you have a goal of being more connected to friends and family, for instance, you might align your cue to call home with the time you spend doing the dishes every night, only to find you're too tired in the evening or eat out too frequently for that one to stick. Switching the cue to calling home when you get in the car to head to work in the morning might work better. Just make sure you stick to it once you figure out the best timing.

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