January Starts in November: How to Plan Your New Year Wellness Challenge
January is the biggest fresh start of the year. People come back from the holidays with good intentions and a little guilt, and they are more open to a new habit than at almost any other time. Behavioural researchers call this the fresh-start effect: new beginnings on the calendar make people more willing to start something new.
The problem is December. Between year-end deadlines, holiday parties and people disappearing on leave from mid-month, the planning window quietly closes. If your New Year wellness challenge isn't ready before the break, it launches late, launches rushed, or slips to February, when the fresh-start energy has already gone.
So January really starts now, in November. If this sounds familiar, it's the same logic as our piece on planning September early.
Design your New Year challenge for week two, not day one
Almost any challenge looks good on the first day. The real test is the second week of January.
In 2019, Strava named the second Friday of January "Quitter's Day" after spotting the point where New Year activity starts to drop off. Its later data puts the dip on the second Tuesday. In 2027 that's 8 or 12 January, depending on which version you go by. Either way, the danger zone is the same: the moment the novelty fades and real life comes back.
That gives you a smart launch option. Instead of starting on the chaotic first day back, launch on Monday 11 January 2027. People have cleared their inboxes, and your challenge arrives exactly when solo resolutions start to wobble. It's the rescue rather than the competition.
Your six-week planning timeline
| When | What to get done |
|---|---|
| Week of 16 November | Decide the shape: format, length (four weeks works well), who it's for, and the budget. |
| Week of 23 November | Get a sponsor from leadership and lock the dates. Ask one senior person to take part, not just approve. |
| Week of 30 November | Build the challenge on your platform, set up teams, and test it with a small pilot group. |
| Week of 7 December | Write the comms: a teaser, the invitation, a short FAQ. Schedule the reminders for the first week back now. |
| Week of 14 December | Open registration before the break. Ask managers to mention it in year-end meetings. |
| Holidays | Nothing. Your scheduled reminders do the work. |
| Week of 4 January | Send a "teams are set" reminder and a kick-off post. |
| Monday 11 January | Launch. |
The single most useful thing on that list is scheduling the January reminders in December. Nobody wants to write launch emails on 4 January.
Five design choices that survive January
- Forgiving targets. A goal like 20 active days out of 28 keeps the pull of a daily habit but survives a sick day or a busy week. We explain why in our piece on the psychology of streaks.
- Teams over individuals. People skip a workout for themselves; they rarely let their team down. Team totals or averages keep the middle of the pack involved.
- Prize draws for everyone who hits the goal. Prizes for the top three motivate the top three. A draw among everyone who reaches a realistic target keeps the whole company in the game until the last week.
- Count more than steps. Not everyone walks. An activity-to-step converter lets swimmers, cyclists, wheelchair users and gym-goers all count.
- Plan a week-two moment. Schedule something for the second Tuesday: a team photo prompt, a bonus mini-challenge, a message from a leader. It gives people a reason to open the app on the day they would otherwise drift.
The pre-holiday checklist
If you can tick these before you leave for the holidays, January takes care of itself.
- Dates set and the sponsor confirmed
- Challenge built and tested with a pilot group
- Invitation and FAQ written
- First-week reminders scheduled
- Week-two moment planned
- Registration open
Want something for December too? A light surprise Advent challenge keeps people connected through the holidays and warms them up for January.
The takeaway
The New Year wellness challenge that works is the one that was finished in December. Plan the shape in November, open registration before the break, and launch in the second week, when people need a reason to keep going.
Want help setting up your January challenge? Book a 20-minute call and we'll walk through the setup with you.
Sources
- Days of the Year: Quitter's Day (origin of the name, Strava, 2019)
- TechRadar: Strava reveals when Quitter's Day falls (later Strava data: the second Tuesday of January)
