Every January, fitness tech and wearables companies love to remind us of our New Year’s resolutions. For a select few, New Year’s features, challenges and marketing campaigns are just the boost they need. For others, they are another reason to feel bad about themselves.

It’s the start of the new year, Peloton Bikes are on sale, Apple is launching its annual “New Year’s Ring” challenge badges and new Fitness Plus content, and funnily enough, it’s around this time that I see a lot of my friends suddenly starting riding in Strava Record mileage. But this year, I’m seeing a new marketing tactic: quit smoking days.

Quit Day is the second Friday in January – the day most people abandon their New Year’s resolutions, whether fitness-related or otherwise. Apple has launched an Apple Watch ad around it, encouraging people to "quit smoking" with an extra wrist incentive. Popular strength-training app Ladder is also jumping on the trend with a humorous ad that suggests you, too, can avoid quitting if you have a Ladder trainer within earshot.

During this year’s Quit Smoking Day, I went to the large CES trade show. At CES, I'm lucky if I can fit in a workout, eat three meals a day, and sleep more than three hours a night. My Apple Watch training load data, Strava fitness charts, and Oura Ring scores all resemble a stock crash. I've used a half-dozen fitness apps that give me sweet reminders to "get started again!" By every wearable measure, I'm a complete failure on quitter's day.

People don’t give up on their New Year’s resolutions just because they don’t have the right smartwatch or fitness app. Most people quit because they set unrealistic goals and expectations for themselves. At their core, wearable and fitness technology are tools that can help you develop new habits and achieve your goals, but using them effectively also requires knowing when to ignore them.

It was unpleasant to see my data. I don’t feel good about giving up a new strength training regimen or breaking a seven-month running habit. Younger me would have blamed myself for not doing this Somehow managed to do it all. People who are new to fitness may have given up on it all.

But this year I was smarter and turned off notifications for all my wearables at CES. I used the "Pause Ring" feature on my Apple Watch. I figured two of the four workouts I planned to do at the event that fell by the wayside were good enough. I scheduled a date to resume training shortly after CES.

After years of testing wearables 24/7, I've learned that the best thing to do is trust yourself. Sometimes that means snooping on your wearable data. Many times, this means ignoring it entirely. You don't need it, but I'm totally giving you permission to tell your smartwatch to turn off for the rest of January. After all, there are still 11 months left in the year.