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Most New Year's resolutions fail.
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So in this video I want to talk about the science of why they fail
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and how to avoid that so your New Year's resolutions actually succeed
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and I want to tell you about three of my New Year's resolutions for 2020.
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The first one is to stop going to news websites
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I find I kill a ton of time by doing that
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Now don't get me wrong, I do think it's important to know what's going on in the world,
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but I just don't think following the day-to-day developments of the news cycle is the way to do that
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so instead I am going to get one newspaper delivered to my house every week
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and that is how I am gonna stay informed
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Research has shown it is more effective to make resolutions at new years than at any other time of the year.
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In fact, one study found that people who made resolutions on January 1st
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were 10 times as likely to stick with them 6 months later than people who made their resolutions at other times of the year
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And January 1st 2020 is the first day of a new decade
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so it may be even better.
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Side note: those of you who want to argue that the first day of the decade is actually January 1st 2021,
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while you may technically be correct because there was no year 0,
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we went straight from 1 BC to 1 AD
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for all intents and purposes psychologically this January 1st is the first day of the 2020s
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and that is what matters.
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So the technicalities I think, are unimportant. Abd this argument should be put to bed
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The 2020s start on Jan 1
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But now the bad news: even a resolution made at New Year's will most likely fail
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which is why gyms are packed in January, but they start to clear out by March
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what research has found that only around 8% of people can stick with their resolutions through the end of the year
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So why is this? And, how do we avoid that trap?
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I think it all starts with a misconception
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Oh no, oh no, oh no, oooooh no.
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Foooget. *sigh*
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Well this was going part of the video where I ran on the treadmill but the treadmill's just broken
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so I think the misconception is, that people think that in order to make big changes in their lives
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that they have to make some sort of really big effort
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I mean let's say your goal was to run a marathon
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you might plan on running ten kilometers three times a week
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that seems kind of proportionate to the end goal
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and you might be excited and really motivated to do it for the first few weeks
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but at some point that motivation is gonna lag
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and running 10k is gonna seem too hard
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and so you're gonna sort of fall back into old habits
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the misconception is thinking you need to go big,
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and so being over ambitious with your goals and then not being able to commit and stick to them
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I'm gonna fix this.
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The truth is you're much better off if you pick small targets that you can hit consistently
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that's the idea behind James Clear's book "Atomic Habits"
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which is this idea that if you can get just 1% better every day at something, it will take a minimum amount of effort
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but over time the effects will compound just like compound interest
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and James Clear proposes the two-minute rule:
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'pick something that you can do in just two minutes'
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So if you want to run a marathon, start by say running two minutes a day
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that is something that you can't say you don't have time for
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and once that habit sticks, well then you can try to extend it into something more ambitious
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the next problem with resolutions is they are too often vague
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the most common resolutions that people make are to
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lose weight, exercise more, and to eat better.
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the problem is those things are so nondescript that it's hard to know if you're making progress
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and it's really easy to regress into your old habits
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so the science around this says you need to be specific
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AND, write down your goals
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people who write down their goals are 40% more likely to achieve them
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that is pretty significant just by taking that step of putting pen to paper
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and I'm thinking here in this video you should put your New Year's resolutions in the comments
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because at least that is taking a step towards committing yourself to a goal for the year
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My second new year's resolution for 2020 is to write in a daily planner every day of this year
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In fact I can be more specific than that.
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Um, I will write one word in this book each day
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now I know one word might seem unhelpfully ridiculously little to write in this book
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but I want to commit to this idea of starting small
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with the idea that if I get in the habit of making the time to at least write down one word on each one of these pages,
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well then maybe some days I will write more than one word
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and that will be helpful in terms of planning my day a little bit
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and so hopefully I will be more productive than I would have been otherwise
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and then it's really important to track your progress in an obvious and visual way
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and I'm going to use the everyday calendar by Simone Giertz
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Oddly satisfying.
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Where there's a button for every day of the year
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and you can push it and the light turns on
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and that is really satisfying
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so I think this will encourage me to write down a word early in the day so that I can go and turn on the light for that day
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what's great about this is it's a very visual way to track my progress
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and to have it in an obvious place where I can look at it all the time
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and I'll put it in the back of shot for some of my videos in 2020
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so you guys can see how I'm progressing towards this goal
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so the third major problem with New Year's resolutions is that people seem to think
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it's about having more willpower or motivation, being able to resist temptation better
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but willpower is a finite resource
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and it can be depleted that there are gonna be some bad days and that is when you're gonna relapse
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so relying on willpower is not an effective strategy
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and research has shown that people who have better self-control
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actually just have to exercise it less
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the way they're able to do that is by structuring their environments so they don't have to exercise their willpower
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I find in my kitchen it's always like the treats and snacks which are left out on the counter
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but the veggies which are like tucked away in the vegetable crisper drawer
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and I get it because you know that's where the veggies are meant to go to keep them crisp,
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but the problem is if I don't see them, if they're not in my line of sight, I will just end up eating what's on the counter
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and not going digging for veggies
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so we need a way of changing our environments so that we make better choices
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which brings me to my third and final new year's resolution for 2020:
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I am deleting social media apps off of my phone
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I'm getting rid of Instagram and Twitter. You are watching the exact moment that I do that
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the reason for this is I find I just kill way too much time going into these apps
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and research shows that any tiny distraction that you have during your day
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takes you you know something like 20,25 minutes to get back into your work
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and so I'm losing a lot of time to just procrastinating with these apps
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so I'm getting rid of them off my phone
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so I don't have to use my willpower to not click them mindlessly as I normally would
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and I've actually downloaded an app that will block news sites and block my social media while I'm working
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because that way I don't have to restrain myself
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the systems that I put in place will restrain me for me
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I know a lot of this sounds a little bit CGP Grey
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but I think he's on to something
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you don't need to follow the day-to-day movements of the news cycle and you do not need to be scrolling social media all the time
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particularly when you're trying to get useful work done
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so that's how I feel
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I want to optimize my 2020 by locking down all my potential distractions not needing any willpower,
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and I've got some small, specific, and written down,
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targeted with tracking plans for 2020
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so I'd love to know what you're planning for 2020 for your New Year's resolutions
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What are your plans for the next decade?
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Hey! this episode of Veritasium is supported by viewers like you on Patreon and by Audible
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You know what's an excellent habit? Listening to one audiobook every month
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and as an Audible member, that's easy.
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Because each month you get one credit good for any audiobook regardless of price from Audible's huge selection
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Now a couple of the audiobooks I have on my phone are atomic habits by James Clear,
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and Deep Work by Cal Newport
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and I was re-listening to these books recently when I was taking my kids out for nap drives
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and in fact it was on one of these drives that I came up with my new year's resolutions for 2020
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and hence this episode
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so to browse their unmatched selection of audio content go to a-u-d-i-b-l-e dot com slash Veritasium
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or text Veritasium to 500 500
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Right now audible members get more than ever before
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in addition to one audiobook you get access to two audible originals,
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plus exclusive guided fitness and meditation programs
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and the book that I am listening to next is called Behave -- the biology of humans at our best and worst by Robert M Sapolsky
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it explains why we make the decisions we do in all sorts of situations
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from our most altruistic to our most selfish or vengeful
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and you can join me and start listening with a 30-day trial
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so I want to thank audible for supporting me and I want to thank you for watching