Emergency Reserves
Set a tough goal, then grant yourself a few 'get out of jail free' chits to beat the what-the-hell effect.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 90%
Ambitious goals produce the best results but create the what-the-hell effect: miss one day of a seven-day-a-week goal and you conclude you've blown it and quit entirely. Marissa Sharif's solution is to keep the tough goal but grant a small number of emergency reserves — chits you pull only for a genuine emergency to stay 'on track' after a miss. Critically, they must be framed as emergency reserves rather than cheat days, so you don't feel entitled to spend them casually. This beats simply setting a wimpier goal (five days instead of seven), even though the two are mathematically identical, because the tough goal still stretches you.
Origin
Milkman cites her colleague Marissa Sharif's experiments showing that a tough goal plus framed emergency reserves outperforms an equivalent easier goal, echoing streak-freeze mechanics in apps like Duolingo.
Core principles
- 01Tough, ambitious goals drive the most accomplishment.
- 02Tough goals trigger the what-the-hell effect: one miss makes you abandon the whole goal.
- 03Framing built-in slack as scarce 'emergency reserves' preserves the tough goal without inviting overuse.
How to run it
- 1
Set an ambitious goal
Aim high — e.g. exercise or meditate seven days a week — because tough goals maximize accomplishment.
Watch out Tough goals invite the what-the-hell effect after a single miss.
- 2
Grant a few emergency reserves
Give yourself a small number of chits (e.g. two) that keep you 'on track' when you miss.
- 3
Frame them as emergencies, not cheats
Call them emergency reserves so you only use them in a true emergency rather than feeling entitled.
Pro tip The naming matters — 'cheat day' invites casual overuse; 'emergency reserve' does not.
- 4
Recover instead of quitting
When you miss, spend a reserve to stay on track rather than throwing up your hands and abandoning the goal.
In the wild
Sharif tested a tough seven-day-a-week goal with two emergency reserves against a wimpier five-day goal that is mathematically identical.
→ People striving for the tougher goal with reserves achieved dramatically better outcomes.
The language app gives users streak freezes that prevent a missed day from breaking their practice streak.
→ The freeze acts as an emergency reserve, letting users recover from a lapse without feeling they've failed.
Common mistakes
Calling them cheat days
The 'cheat' framing makes people feel entitled to spend the slack freely instead of reserving it for real emergencies.
Lowering the goal instead
Setting an easier goal removes the stretch that drives accomplishment, even though it looks identical to a tough goal with reserves.
Is it for you?
Best for
Streak-based or high-frequency goals like daily exercise, meditation, or language practice.
Not ideal for
Contexts where any built-in slack would be over-claimed as routine cheating.
From the transcript
“she actually thinks it's important that they be referred to as emergency reserves rather than cheats because then you don't feel entitled to take them”
“you see dramatically better outcomes when people are striving for that higher tougher goal but just giving themselves these emergency chat chits”
From the episode
Katy Milkman: The Science of Change
Katy Milkman