This year saw the lowest posts about resolutions since 2015. But this is part of a longer trend, suggesting that the events of 2020 themselves have not significantly changed the amount of people wanting to make New Year’s plans and commitments.

If 2020 didn’t have a huge effect on the volume of resolutions, did it change what kind of resolutions we made?

With so many people’s lives upended last year, with so many of us having to make personal and professional changes, surely our focus must have shifted too?

To find out, we collated a list of 12 popular resolutions from a range of sources. These include things such as saving more money, drinking less, and exercising. We then created categories in the Consumer Research platform to see which were the most popular over the last few years.

It’s undeniable that things are very different this year.

From 2018 to 2020, generally the same resolutions came to the top each year. Cutting down on drinking led the pack consistently, while giving up meat and improving your career took the second or third spots.

Meanwhile, resolutions around learning and reading never even made the top ten, usually accounting for just 2-3% of the resolutions we included.

Then we reached 2021.

Seeing family and friends more was never a neglected area for resolutions, but this year it took the top spot, making up 20% of the resolutions in our data. It’s hard to believe this hasn’t been influenced by the pandemic, with lockdowns and distancing cutting us off from our loved ones.

We also found that learning and reading have jumped from outside the top 10 to the second and third sports. Resolutions around learning something and reading more accounted for 17% and 13% respectively of the resolutions we tracked.

We cannot be certain this is influenced by Covid-19, but with the prospect of being stuck indoors, or having to find a new job, these two resolutions make sense in this context.

On the flip side of the coin, we saw resolutions to give up meat nearly disappear, with them only making up 1% of our data, compared to 14% last year. The other big “losers” were saving money (down nine points), and cutting out alcohol (down eight points), although it still took fourth place overall. We can’t say we’re surprised by the latter.

What this all tells us is that many people’s priorities have shifted as they’ve gone into 2021. Whether it’s due to the year before, or what they’re expecting in the year ahead, people’s focus has changed.

But in the end, whether resolutions are kept or broken, let’s hope this year is better for us all.

Thanks for reading

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Stay safe,

Brandwatch React Team