Beware of temporal landmarks

Temporal landmarks are beginnings and ends of arbitrary periods of time. A new year, the first of the month, Mondays. Even though these landmarks don’t have much scientific significance, we use them as important decision-making points in our lives. 

For example, people are more likely to go to the gym after a temporal landmark. In his book When, Daniel Pink writes “At a large northeastern university where students had to swipe a card to enter workout facilities, the researchers collected more than a year's worth of data on daily gym attendance…Gym visits increased at the start of each new week, month, and year."

We use these temporal landmarks to motivate ourselves. They give us a fresh start. We often use them to make excuses too. For example, choosing to give up on a diet because we’re on vacation, or choosing not to start a new habit until an old commitment is done. There is no scientific significance to this reasoning, but since we’ve marked a specific duration of time in our minds, we’re less receptive to new things until that time is over, for no good reason at all.

Our culture relies on temporal landmarks to anchor new seasons. I want to be come more cognizant of how I can use temporal landmarks to my advantage, and avoid letting them keep me from good decisions.