Whether you plan to be more active, be more present, improve your sleep, or get more sleep, creating new habits is easier with the Google Pixel Watch 2 and Fitbit app.¹“Setting a New Year’s resolution to focus on positive wellbeing is one of the smartest things we can do,” says Elissa Epel, PhD, Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, and an expert on stress and ageing.

Whatever your new year wellbeing goals, the Pixel Watch 2 can help, with reminder nudges, support, and record-keeping that make it easier to get started and keep going on your wellness journey.

After the indulgences of Christmas, the new year is a natural time to get moving again. Whether you want to get more steps each day or run a marathon, the Pixel Watch 2 can help with setting goals for the new year by keeping you motivated and tracking your progress.  

If you’re aiming to hike more in the new year, you can use the Pixel Watch 2 to count steps and mileage, discover new trails with Google Maps,⁴ and monitor heart rate and fitness levels over time – all from your wrist. The Pixel Watch 2’s Emergency Sharing features will also help keep you safe while you’re out exploring.⁵

The Pixel Watch 2 can help you keep tabs on workouts and see your progress over time. It has 40 exercise modes and tracks how hard your heart is working with Active Zone Minutes.⁶  And if you’re looking for ideas on how to get moving and keep your new year’s fitness resolutions, there’s a full library of audio and video workouts in the Fitbit app via Fitbit Premium.³  

As with anything, you want to make sure not to overdo it. The Daily Readiness Score in Fitbit Premium lets you know how ready your body is for working out – or whether you need time to recover.

The Pixel Watch 2 can support mindfulness goals, too. “Changing our relationship with stress can be done with small changes each day,” says Dr. Epel. “Even adopting one new wellness habit can make a huge difference.”

In the Fitbit app, you can choose a weekly mindfulness goal, set reminders to complete a mindfulness session, reflect on your stress level, and more. Plus, Fitbit Premium provides more than 200 mindfulness sessions from partners like Calm, including meditation, yoga, and relaxation.

But how do you actually track stress levels and progress of your wellbeing goals? There’s a daily Stress Management Score calculated using more than ten factors across responsiveness, exertion, balance, and sleep patterns.⁶ You can see trends in how your body responds to stress and how the actions you take affect your overall stress level. “Daily stress becomes a habit we are used to, and we may not even notice it anymore,” says Dr. Epel. You can use this score to gain insight into your stress level and plan whether to take on a lot that day or take a break. 

And the effects are cumulative. “When we feel less stress and more wellbeing we are more able to stick to the health behaviours we want,” says Dr. Epel.

Studies show a third of adults are sleep deprived and half have trouble falling asleep.² “Sleep is connected to essentially every aspect of health, so getting enough sleep is going to help reduce your risk of virtually every health problem,” says Jennifer M. Mundt, PhD, Assistant Professor and Director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Lab and Training Program at Northwestern University. 

But getting more sleep – and even knowing how much you’re actually getting – can be a challenge. This is where the Pixel Watch 2 comes in. When you wear it to bed, you’ll wake up with a Sleep Score based on your heart rate, the time you spend awake or restless, and your sleep stages.¹ It helps you understand your sleep each night and shows you trends over time in the Fitbit app. Then you can use these insights to build healthy new year’s resolutions and habits to get better rest.

Want to go deeper into the data? Fitbit Premium offers a more detailed breakdown of your Sleep Score, like an analysis of heart rate during sleep, or you can check out your Sleep Profile to see your sleep trends over the past month across 10 key sleep metrics.¹ Purchases of a Pixel Watch 2 include six months of Fitbit Premium.³

You can also use the app to set sleep goals and schedule cues to wind down or go to bed. “Establishing a new routine takes time, and at first it can help to set external reminders such as an alarm to get ready for bed or turn off the TV,” says Dr. Mundt. 

Another key to reaching your new year health and wellbeing goals is to make it easy on yourself. “Start small with a goal that seems manageable, such as getting to bed 15 to 30 minutes earlier each day,” she says. “Consistency is really important with sleep, so another good place to start is to just get a consistent wake time every day of the week.” Every little bit counts.