New Year's Resolutions 2024 - and how to keep them

Alexandra Jones, Culture and Features Executive Editor

I’ve always been quietly in favour of a resolution. Not as an act of self-flagellation but as an act of hope. Pledging to change or achieve something adds a glimmer of energy and anticipation to the cold, sharp end of the year. It says “I’m ready to make the next 12 months my b****, just watch”. Even if we’ve been rendered sluggish by too many cheese boards and too little daylight, the implication is that we are now ready to emerge from the festive chrysalis and flap our wings.

There are a few ways to make keeping a resolution easier. One study found that adding a time and place to your aim (so “I will work out more” becomes “I will work out every Tuesday afternoon”), has been shown to improve your chances of sticking to it. Another, by researchers at the University of California San Diego found that throwing yourself into a task with intensity in the first month made it more likely that you’ll continue longer term — so if your resolution is to, aim high for January at least and by March, the rate may well have slowed but it’s less likely that you’ll