As the old saying goes, variety is spice of life. It turns out, it’s also the key to keeping yourself motivated to meet your goals when you haven’t yet made much progress. The catch: if you are almost at your goal, less variety is more motivating.

In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, PhD candidate Jordan Etkin talks about her research that finds variety has a huge impact on motivation.