January 1 works, a bit. Katy Milkman, Hengchen Dai and Jason Riis named it the fresh start effect in a 2014 paper: people take up goals more readily at the start of a new week, month, year or birthday. The date gets you going. It doesn't keep you going.
So the list starts with how habits hold, then goes resolution by resolution.
| The resolution | The book | Why this one |
|---|---|---|
| Any of them | Atomic Habits · James Clear (2018) | The standard manual. Clear's 4 laws are to make a habit obvious, attractive, easy and satisfying. If you read one book on this page, read this one. |
| Any of them, and Atomic Habits didn't take | Tiny Habits · BJ Fogg (2019) | From the Stanford researcher whose work Clear builds on. Smaller steps, more forgiving, better for people who've failed before. |
| Understand why you keep failing | How to Change · Katy Milkman (2021) | A Wharton professor on the 7 obstacles (impulsivity, forgetting, laziness among them) and the fix for each. Where the fresh start research is explained by the person who did it. |
| Waste less time | Four Thousand Weeks · Oliver Burkeman (2021) | An average life is about 4,000 weeks. Burkeman's argument is that you'll never clear the list, so choose what to neglect. A productivity book that lowers your blood pressure. |
| Waste less time, in small doses | Meditations for Mortals · Oliver Burkeman (2024) | 28 short chapters meant to be read one a day for 4 weeks. Built for January. |
| Do less, better | Essentialism · Greg McKeown (2014) | For the resolution that's really about saying no. Repetitive, and useful. |
| Be calmer | 365 Days of Tao · ours | The Tao Te Ching, one verse and one reflection each morning from January 1. The habit is the point: 5 minutes before the phone. ★4.7 across 222 Amazon ratings. |
| Start meditating | 365 Days of Meditation · ours | Teaches the practice one skill at a time, a page a day, drawing on 80+ teachers. For people who've downloaded the app twice. How to start has the no-book version. |
| Read more | Any dated page-a-day book | A resolution to read more fails on size. One page a day is too small to skip. The 2027 shelf has 12 to choose from. |
| Get back into reading after years off | Our restart list | Short, fast books picked to rebuild the habit. |
| Be more disciplined | The Daily Stoic · Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman (2016) | A Stoic passage and a short commentary for every date. The best-known daily reader, and a good match for a year of showing up. |
| Learn something new | A daily reader on the subject | Philosophy, history, psychology and mythology all come in a page-a-day format. By December you've covered the field. |
Why most resolutions die in February
They're too big and they're attached to nothing. "Read 50 books" doesn't say when you'll read or where to begin. "Read one page with my coffee" says both.
Clear and Fogg agree on the repair: shrink the habit until it's almost silly, tie it to something you already do every day, and count showing up as the win. Our habits guide has the short version.
Why a dated book helps
A page-a-day book has the repair built in. The commitment is one page. The schedule is printed at the top. And when you miss a week, today's date tells you where to pick up, so there's no backlog to feel bad about.
That's the design reason these books sell in December and January. Our own sales of 365 Days of Tao in December run at about 3 times November's, with a second peak in January.
If you're giving one of these as a gift
Careful with habit books as presents. Atomic Habits from a partner can read as a hint. Daily readers are safer, because they're about a subject rather than about the person's failings.
The holiday gift guide has the rest.
Try the habit before January
Our free daily emails are the same one-page format: Tao, Zen, philosophy and meditation. If you read them for 2 weeks in December, the January book will stick.
Buying for someone else's resolution? New Year gift ideas has 12 gifts that start on January 1.
Common questions
What is the best book for keeping New Year's resolutions?
Atomic Habits by James Clear for the method, or Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg if you've tried before and it didn't last. Katy Milkman's How to Change explains the research behind why January 1 helps at all.
What should I read in January?
Something sized for the month. Oliver Burkeman's Meditations for Mortals has 28 short chapters designed to be read one a day. A dated page-a-day book does the same job for the whole year.
What is a good book for a resolution to read more?
A page-a-day book, because the daily amount is too small to skip. See the 2027 page-a-day shelf. If you've been away from books for years, start with our restart list.
Do New Year's resolutions work?
The date helps you start. Milkman, Dai and Riis documented this as the fresh start effect in 2014. Keeping going depends on how small and how well-anchored the habit is, which is what Clear and Fogg write about.
What is a good book for a calmer year?
365 Days of Tao for a 5-minute morning reading, or Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks for a single book that changes how you think about time.