When is Quitter's Day 2027?
Quitter's Day 2027 falls on Friday, January 8, using the original definition: the second Friday of January. Strava coined the name in 2018 after analyzing more than 31.5 million January activities. Its later analyses placed the biggest drop a little later in some years, so treat the whole second and third weeks of January as the danger zone.
The date matters less than the pattern. Motivation is highest in the first days of January and fades before new habits become automatic. That gap is predictable, so you can plan for it.
What is Quitter's Day?
Quitter's Day is the day people are most likely to give up on New Year's resolutions, especially fitness goals. The name comes from the fitness app Strava, which found that activity uploads dropped sharply below expected levels around the second Friday of January. It has since become a widely used label for the mid-January slump.
The origin, as reported in the UK press in January 2018, was Strava's analysis of over 31.5 million global January activities, which pointed to the second Friday. In 2019 Strava repeated the exercise with a much larger pool of nearly 685 million global activities, including about 108 million in the US, and named Thursday, January 17 as the day Americans were most likely to give up.
Why do people quit their resolutions in mid-January?
People quit in mid-January because the novelty of a fresh start has faded but the new behavior is not yet a habit. Willpower is doing all the work. Add short, cold days, the return to full work schedules and a goal that was too vague or too big, and skipping one day turns into skipping the week.
Research supports the timing. In a six-month study by Norcross, Mrykalo and Blagys (2002), 71% of resolvers were still on track after one to two weeks, falling to 46% at six months. Habits take far longer than two weeks to form: Lally and colleagues (2010) found a median of 66 days for a daily behavior to feel automatic.
How do you avoid quitting your New Year's resolution?
Expect the slump, then lower the bar instead of quitting. Shrink your daily action to a version you can do in five minutes, attach it to a set time and place, and tell someone you will report to that week. Missing one day is normal; the goal is to never let one miss become a pattern.
A seven-day plan for Quitter's Week (January 4 to 10, 2027)
| Day | Action |
|---|---|
| Mon, Jan 4 | Write your bad-day minimum for each resolution: the smallest version that still counts. |
| Tue, Jan 5 | Write one if-then plan: "If it is 6 p.m. and I have not trained, then I do a 15-minute walk." |
| Wed, Jan 6 | Tell one person your resolution and agree on a Sunday check-in text. |
| Thu, Jan 7 | Remove one obstacle: lay out gym clothes, prep lunches, delete an app. |
| Fri, Jan 8 | Quitter's Day. Do the minimum, even if it is all you do. Check it off. |
| Sat, Jan 9 | Do something social: a group class, a run club, a walk with a friend. |
| Sun, Jan 10 | Review the week. Keep what worked, shrink what did not, plan next week. |
Does doing it with other people help?
Yes. Data Strava released alongside its 2018 Quitter's Day announcement found that people who exercised with friends were more likely to stay active, and those who joined a club were more likely still. Research on New Year's resolutions points the same way: people who had a named support person and regular follow-ups reported the highest success rate after a year.
The Strava figures, from the same 2018 report, were 22% for exercising with friends and 46% for joining a club. They also found that 92% of athletes who set a race goal in January were still active ten months later. In the one-year study by Oscarsson and colleagues (2020), the group with a support person and monthly follow-ups reported 62.3% success, compared with 55.9% for those who received no support.
What should you do if you already quit?
Restart on the next landmark: the next Monday, February 1 or your next payday. Research on the fresh start effect found people are more likely to pursue goals after these temporal landmarks. Restart with a smaller version of the goal and one change to the plan, rather than repeating the exact plan that stalled.
The research is from Dai, Milkman and Riis (2014), who found more gym visits and goal-related searches after the start of a new week, month or year. Ask what actually caused the miss: time of day, the size of the task, or no one noticing. Fix that one thing. Our guide on discipline over motivation covers systems that do not rely on feeling like it.
Quitter's Day is a prediction, not a verdict. Plan the week before it arrives: a bad-day minimum, an if-then plan, one person to report to and one social workout. Then do the minimum on January 8.
Frequently asked questions
Is Quitter's Day always the second Friday of January?
The original 2018 definition from Strava was the second Friday of January. Strava's later analyses placed the biggest drop on other days, such as Thursday, January 17 in 2019. The second Friday is the common shorthand. In 2027, that is January 8.
What percentage of people quit their New Year's resolutions?
It depends on the study and the time frame. Norcross and colleagues found 46% of resolvers were still succeeding at six months. A 2020 study of 1,066 people found 55% considered themselves successful after one year. Figures claiming that 80% or more fail are widely repeated but often lack a clear source.
Is it bad to miss one day of a new habit?
No. In Lally's study of habit formation, missing a single opportunity did not significantly affect the habit forming. The risk is when one miss becomes several. A simple rule is never miss twice in a row.