Pretty much everyone hates Mondays but there is an excellent reason to feel a little less hostile towards the first day of the week. According to research from the University of Pennsylvania, Mondays are the perfect day to tackle a new goal because you are more naturally motivated at the beginning of a new week to make a positive change.

People are more likely to visit the gym, to think about their health, to commit to pursue a new goal like quitting smoking and to Google the word “diet” on Mondays. Of course there are dozens of new beginnings throughout the year – New Year’s, birthdays, the first day of the month, and a new semester when aspirational behavior peaks—but Mondays are weekly opportunities to start anew and harness the motivation that accompanies a new beginning. Even if you cannot sustain the “new you” this week, opportunities to try again abound.

Psychologists call this “the fresh start effect.” Every Monday is an opportunity to leave the past behind and to start over. It’s the psychological equivalent of pressing the refresh button. Researchers believe these “turn the page” days have a positive effect because they provide perspective and take us off autopilot. As the researchers explain, Mondays are:

…temporal landmarks [that] interrupt attention to day-to-day minutiae, causing people to take a big-picture view of their lives and thus focus more on achieving their goals.

Psychologically, Mondays are a blank slate, a brand new start. When you reframe Monday as an opportunity to adopt a new habit and initiate a positive change rather than repetition of the same old stuff, you no longer need to dread them quite as much.

When someone steps on my foot, I am the first to say, “I’m sorry.” I apologize for the weather, for terrible traffic, the long line at CVS and dozen of other undesirable situations that I am not responsible for.

I am not the only one who is inflicted with “Sorry Syndrome.” Many of my patients, especially women, tell me they insert “Sorry” into any sentence that contains a request.

“Sorry, may I have a glass of water?”

“Sorry, can I ask a question?”

“Sorry, where is the bathroom?”

Knowing how to apologize for something you regret is one thing. Apologizing for basically existing is another. As columnist Jessica Bennett writes:

Sorry is a crutch — a tyrannical lady-crutch. It’s a space filler, a hedge, a way to politely ask for something without offending, to appear “soft” while making a demand.

So why do we insist on making on apologizing for no reason? A Harvard Business School study provides a possible explanation. According to the research, superfluous apologies build trust. In the study, an actor approached strangers in a train station on a rainy day and requested to borrow their phone. Half of the time, the actor prefaced his request with “I’m sorry about the rain!” The other half of the time, the actor went straight to the point and asked, “Can I borrow your cell phone?” Apologizing for the rain made a big difference: forty-seven percent of strangers offered their phone if the actor apologized for the rain. Only nine percent did without the apology. As the authors conclude:

Superfluous apologies represent a powerful and easy-to-use tool for social influence. Even in the absence of culpability, individuals can increase trust and liking by saying ‘I’m sorry’ – even if they are merely ‘sorry’ about the rain.

Building trust is important but does not justify apologizing for every little thing. If you want to reduce the number of superfluous apologies that roll off your tongue, consider replacing “sorry” with “thank you.”

For example, instead of saying, “Sorry for rambling” you can say, “Thank you for listening.” Instead of saying “Sorry” when you move past someone on a train, you can say “Thank you for making room.”

A recent article in The Atlantic highlights the benefits of replacing an apology with gratitude:

Sorry you had to do that” is not only a rejection of their nice gesture, a lot of times, it makes it weird. “Thank you for doing that” is recognizing and accepting their kindness.

On that note, thank you for reading this article.

Do cute products sell better? To explore this question, researchers measured the effect of cute, playful and whimsical products on consumption and indulgence.

Test participants ate more ice cream when they served themselves ice cream with a whimsical ice cream scoop then a plain one, an alligator shaped stapler inspired more creativity than a normal one, a playfully colored gift certificate encouraged more frivolous purchases than an unadorned one, and test participants ate more cutely decorated cookies than plain ones. The results are clear: consumers love cute stuff.

Companies are acutely aware of the power of “cute”. Indeed, we are surrounded by cute products: Marc Jacobs’ kitten shoes; iPhone covers designed to look like turtles; kitchen utensils like zebra dish scrubbers and Betty Boop rubber gloves; pens, pencils and paperclips in quirky shapes and colors; Gummi Bears; the MINI Cooper; and the mother of all cuteness, Hello Kitty.

Design influences human behavior on many levels. The researchers hope their work has application beyond peddling a product:

Even though we examined the effects of playful products on indulgence in the domains of eating, shopping, and product usage, we expect that exposure to whimsical products could have similar effects on helping people focus on having fun and rewarding themselves in other important life domains like savings, debt repayment, or time management.

Fun design has been shown to influence behavior in positive ways. In fact, Volkswagen sponsored a ‘Fun Theory’ campaign in which:

…an open invitation was extended to submit ideas that made seemingly baleful social challenges — environmental protection, speed-limit adherence, boosting public transportation ridership — enjoyable.

Examples included: The Piano Stairs next to an escalator that enticed more people to climb stairs to the tune of their steps than take the escalator; The Bottle Bank Arcade which made recycling fun; and The Playbelt which prohibited drivers from accessing in-car entertainment systems until every passenger was safely buckled in.

Bottom line: be aware of the way that products and design influence behavior. Make choices that bring out the best in you.