It is the last mathNEWS issue of 2023, which means you will be thinking about New Year’s resolutions soon. A new calendar year is a powerful tool to create new streaks. How great would it be if you could cook a new recipe every day this year? Or avoid playing video games on weekdays? Or maybe you’ll start writing for mathNEWS because that’s proven to improve your muscle-to-fat ratio.

So, for a number of weeks, your calendar looks pristine. Every day (or whatever period you choose), you’ve stuck to your new habit (or refrained from your old one). You have a nice streak going. The days count up, and you feel proud. The goal is to make the streak so long that it locks you in. March rolls around and you stop counting how long the streak is because the numbers are getting too big to keep track of. You stop thinking about doing it and just do it.

Then something happens. Maybe you got drunk and let your guard down. Maybe there were two midterms, an assignment, and your mom’s birthday on the same day and you couldn’t get around to following your commitment. The streak is broken, and that number you’ve been working for is back at zero. The next day you start again at Day One, except this time Day One isn’t January 1. It’s a random day after whatever day you slipped up. Starting a resolution was easy, but restarting it is your test.

Or maybe it doesn’t have to be. Over the past year I’ve been using Duolingo to learn Korean, and they have an interesting way of treating streaks. You might be familiar with the memes of that green owl threatening to murder you in your sleep if you don’t do your daily dose of French. But they have another far more effective way of keeping you on your toes. On Duolingo, when the streak breaks, it doesn’t actually break. Instead, it bends. “Streak freezes” are a consumable item that lets you forget a day without resetting the counter of how many days your streak has lasted. Don’t lose hope; the bird still believes in you! Just start again tomorrow and earn enough gems to buy back the streak freeze.

Obviously, it’s a tool to get people to spend more of their lives on the app watching their ads or paying for their premium plan. But in a world where your attention is the most important resource, it’s worth looking at what people in the attention business are doing. The takeaway? Set up rules in advance for how to “buy back” your streak. The price should be doable enough to keep your hopes up, but difficult enough that you won’t rely on it unless you have no choice.

When I was in high school, I did push-ups every day. And on days I didn’t, I doubled the target and added it to the next day. That was my most successful resolution and I still have the veins to show for it. (Or maybe it’s just physiology, I’m not a scientist.)

As a testament to the strength of this approach, my Duolingo streak made it to 300 this month. I originally intended to kill it after my summer trip to Korea, but the streak freezes managed to save it. Why not, I thought, and I kept it going after returning. But taking a step back, I’ve realized I haven’t actually learned any new Korean since the summer. My Duolingo use had decayed to doing the easiest things to keep that number growing. The streak had outlived the very thing it was meant to encourage. So last weekend I went traveling again, but this time I’ve decided to not buy back those streak freezes.

So be conscious about the streaks in your life. Use them to achieve your goals, but remember they are fragile. A buyback system will make it easier to maintain your goals even when the streak gets tested. And when your goals move on, don’t let the streak hold you back.

306 is where mine will die.