Harness that back-to-school energy to set some new goals.
I haven’t been to school in many years, but every fall, I buy myself a stack of new notebooks and some fresh pens.
Something about this ritual takes me back to the first day of school when I was a kid, clutching my shiny Trapper Keeper and roasting in a new sweater.
I still feel the sense of renewed energy and possibility that September brings. Back-to-school season is one of those significant calendar milestones that produces what some behavioral scientists call a “fresh start effect.” This feeling can motivate us to set and pursue new goals, they say.
Traditionally, January is a time of new beginnings, but September can be, too, said Laura Vanderkam, a productivity expert and author of “Big Time: A Simple Path to Time Abundance.” You may have more energy after a restful summer schedule, Vanderkam said.
And September is a good month to make “small tweaks,” she added, “as opposed to the kind of lifestyle overhauls that people seem to think they are going to do every January.”
I asked her and other experts in productivity and fitness how to harness that back-to-school feeling to build healthy habits.
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