How To Make Your New Years Resolution Stick, Why The Timing Of Your Daily Coffee Matters and Why We'd Rather Give Up On Wins To Avoid Potential Losses

Cognicent | January, 2026 | Newsletter

Happy New Year and welcome to the January 2026 edition of our Insight Articles!

In this edition we explore why your new years resolutions don’t work, the healthiest time for coffee, and why winning & losing is not created equal!

As we kick off 2026, many Australians embark on a “New Years Resolution”, with about 71% of Australians crafting these commitments that come into effect at the stroke of midnight on January 1. While usually with great intent, the sad reality of them is that they rarely result in success. In fact, researchers suggest that only about 8% of resolutions are successful, while other findings suggest that the vast majority of resolutions are broken within the first two weeks of the new year…staggering!

However, social psychologist Kurt Lewin has suggested a framework which can help to stack the odds in our favour when coming up with our resolutions for the year ahead. It’s known as the EAST Framework which stands for:

Easy: minimise the effort it requires, because our brain loves the path of least resistance 

Attractive: make incentives to engage in the behaviour are built into the task 

Social: do it in an environment where other people are doing the same thing, so we can see it and be surrounded by it 

Timely: ensure that some kind of reward for the behaviour is experienced soon after

If we take one of the most widely used resolutions, “To exercise more” and use the EAST framework, it might look like:

Easy- join a gym close to your house

Attractive– download a podcast or your favourite playlist to listen to while you’re there

Social- go with a friend to keep you accountable

Timely- track the number of sessions you attend so you can see progress and reward yourself at milestones

Consider

Thinking about your plans for the new year, have you crafted goals or objectives in a way that’s going to support you to achieve them?

If you consider the EAST framework, do your goals satisfy the four elements and if not, how could you use them to strengthen your new year commitments?

Article Reference:

https://www.wri.org/insights/new-years-resolutions-behavioral-science 

If you’re like many people chances are you’re a coffee drinker. Some do it because they enjoy the taste, others for the soothing morning ritual and many as a way to kickstart their day. Whatever your reasoning, caffeine is the most commonly used stimulant on earth and is said to have some positive health impacts. However, more recently, researchers have looked into whether the time of day that you consume coffee matters. A study published in the European Heart Journal looking into the coffee habits of 40 000 adults over a 20-year period found the answer to this question, and their findings have implications for our heart health and longevity.

Researchers found:

People who drank their coffee in the morning (between 4am and noon) lived longer than those who drank coffee throughout the day or not at all

Coffee drinkers had a significantly lower risk of death from any cause compared to those who didn’t drink coffee at all, but specifically, morning coffee drinkers were 16 percent less likely to die

Morning coffee drinkers were 31% less likely to die from a cardiovascular event than non-coffee drinkers

Benefits of drinking a high quantity of coffee was only linked to those who drank it in the morning

In essence, coffee was found to have benefits for our health and longevity, but only when consumed in the morning periods

Consider

When do you consume coffee throughout your day?

Is there an opportunity to condense your caffeine intake to between 4am and noon?

Article Reference:

Xuan Wang, Hao Ma, Qi Sun, Jun Li, Yoriko Heianza, Rob M Van Dam, Frank B Hu, Eric Rimm, JoAnn E Manson, Lu Qi, Coffee drinking timing and mortality in US adults, European Heart Journal, Volume 46, Issue 8, 21 February 2025, Pages 749–759, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehae871

We’ve all likely had the experience of anxiety as we await a result of some kind, whether it’s a medical result, a job interview or anything else. While we know that humans like to avoid uncertainty, a recent study looked at just how much we dislike it and what we’re willing to do to avoid it. A study published in the journal of Cognitive Science looked at the emotions associated with winning and losing and whether people’s perception of potential wins were equal to perceptions of potential losses.

The study found:

Prior to an event occurring people experience anticipatory emotions. This is where we “savour” the thought of a desirable outcome but “dread” the thought of an unwanted one

Dreading an unwanted outcome was six times more powerful an emotional response than savouring the prospect of a desirable one

The dread of losing can be so significant that we wont take a chance at all, choosing instead to opt out of the process altogether

We therefore not only dislike anticipation and uncertainty, but we also weigh potential future losses as far more significant than future gains

Consider

When it comes to your role, are there things you or your people opt out of doing for fear of a potentially unwanted outcome?

What are the implications of avoiding these things on peoples ability to be safe, well and productive in their roles?

Article Reference:

Dawson, C., & Johnson, S. G. (2026). Asymmetric Anticipatory Emotions and Economic Preferences: Dread, Savoring, Risk, and Time. Cognitive Science, 50(1), e70160.

We hope that you have a safe, well and productive rest of your week.

– The Cognicent Team