Career-related New Year’s Resolutions

• #Career

With the year coming to an end and entering the holiday season, we like to reflect on our year and what we have done or how we did improve ourselves during the year. The end of the year is a perfect time to reflect on yourself and set your goals for the next year. Many people associate new year’s resolutions with personal lives and growth, but what about our professional ambitions? If you want to set career-related new year’s resolutions for the upcoming year, we are more than happy to offer you a few nifty ideas.

• Spend more time on improving work-life balance. This resolution might help you improve not only your career or the quality of your work but also your personal life. Most of us do not know how to draw a line between work and personal life, finding a balance not only improves your physical health but also your mental well-being.

• Learn to organize your digital and physical files and emails. If your desk, cabinets, email, or desktop look like a mess, the new year is a perfect time to learn how to clean everything up periodically and how to keep everything tidy. Do not keep anything unnecessary; sort everything out by categories, topics, etc. Use binders and folders to organize things in your physical drawers and recycle unnecessary papers.

• Improve your LinkedIn profile. Evaluate how your profile looks and how your profile represents you. In digital times, the personal brand is everything and it matters even if you are not looking for a new job. Another important thing about LinkedIn is not to be afraid to be active. Participate in discussions and express your opinion – this might help you build a necessary network even if you are not looking for a new job to build a network of useful connections. Like it or not, connections are crucial. Tips on how to improve your LinkedIn profile can be found here.

• Use up all your accrued vacation. This might sound hilarious, but enough vacation and relaxation add a lot to your work quality. Feeling the need to have some time off work does not make you a slacker or weak, it is an important right that you have as a working person. No matter how much you enjoy your work, overworking can lead to burnout and a decline in productivity. You deserve time off!

• Find a new job. Many researchers believe that the period after the New Year is the best time to find a new job, so make the most of it if a thought of a new job occurred to you recently. Everyone comes back after the holidays with fresh minds and new projects to fulfil. Review your CV – update it with new information, make it more attractive and work on your LinkedIn!

• Change your work habits. Do you want to stop working overtime or forget about the work after working hours? Or maybe you need to learn to be more productive? This could be a great new year’s resolution! This can be not only related to the work in general, but maybe you always wanted to do small exercise breaks during your work hours or begin meal prep for your workdays. These things could also improve your work quality and push you to change your habits.

• Participate in seminars. There might not be a better way to improve in your career than seminars and events related to your industry. You learn something more, and it is a great space to improve your network by making new connections. Seminars are a great way to express your opinions and broaden your horizons.

• Develop a new skill. There are millions of skills in the world that could improve you not only as a human but as an employee. Learn how to not get distracted, how to manage time, and prioritize certain tasks more than others. Maybe you do not know how to say “no” to your colleagues or managers – make your new year’s resolution to learn how to draw a line and say “no”. Or maybe you want to learn to set boundaries with customers? Think about anything that could improve you as an employee or benefit your work quality.