Professional New Year’s Resolution Ideas & Tips – 2021 Edition

As professionals, our calendars are often full of deadlines and weekly goals. But in our quest to meet those daily targets, we forget to set new, broad goals for our overall career. The beginning of the year is the perfect time to think about where you’d like your career to go. Establishing a professional New Year’s resolution will help you achieve your goals faster by providing a clear destination to aim for.

Let’s cover some of the work goals you may want to foster in 2021, and the New Year’s resolution ideas and tips that will help you succeed.

3 Types of Professional New Year’s Resolution Ideas

There are all kinds of ways you can excel in your career. Some are more obvious, like new titles or jobs, and some hit closer to home, like pursuing a more manageable work schedule. Whatever changes will establish happiness and satisfaction in your work life, you can declare this the year to see them through. Figure out what kind of goals you need to work on by reading the sections below. Use these New Year’s resolution ideas for work as your inspiration to set your own goals for 2021.

1. New Year’s Resolution Ideas for Career Growth

Growing your career is a crucial aspect of life, but it can often be scary. Sometimes you don’t know what you want, and sometimes you’re afraid to ask for it. If you’re determined to conquer those fears, set a resolution focused on defining your future.

Ask for Your Raise

This is less about setting a financial goal, and more about knowing your worth. If you know your work is valued at more than you are currently making, set a professional New Year’s resolution to earn what you’re worth. If you own a business, consider whether you are undervaluing your services or products. It helps to get honest with yourself, understand what you bring to the table, and know you can ask for it.

Seek a Promotion

Most businesses and organizations like to see that you have goals and are interested in new ways that you can benefit the company. Commit to showing your colleagues how much of an asset you are, and how much of an asset you could become in a bigger role.

If you think that you’re already doing that, it’s important to let your boss know. They may not realize you’re ready to step up to a new challenge. So set a resolution to express your desire to excel in the year ahead

2. New Year’s Resolution Ideas for Learning

Your professional New Year’s resolution doesn’t have to be about how you can excel your career in title or monetary value. You can also commit to learning new skills or becoming more organized. Determine what you’d like to learn, and set a resolution to explore those interests.

Develop New Skills

Are there skills you know would make you better at what you do? Why not make it your mission to become an expert by the end of the year? Whether you take classes or decide to learn more about certain skills through lots of practice, commit to educating yourself.

Get Organized

Organization is key in all aspects of life, but it can be difficult to get organized in the middle of a hectic year. Take some time out at the beginning of the year to start a more structured system for yourself. Clean up your physical space and arrange your desk in a way that better suits you both aesthetically and in function. Sort your work emails into easy-to-find folders. Develop a more streamlined approach to your workflow. Whatever will create less chaos throughout your workday.

3. New Year’s Resolution Ideas for Work-Life Balance

Sometimes succeeding means doing less. We’re so trained to believe that success is defined by more money and impressive titles. But constant work fatigue that leaves you energetically drained in other areas of life isn’t what success should feel like. Set New Year’s resolutions for business that involve recalibrating the scale to an amount of work that works for you.

Establish Healthy Boundaries

If you feel that work has taken over an unhealthy portion of your life, make a resolution to set healthy boundaries in the year ahead. Learning to say ‘no’ and not waiver may feel awkward at first, but it will train others to reframe their expectations of you. Trust that your employees and colleagues can manage tasks or decisions on their own, when you’re not available.

This may mean also retraining yourself to be okay with how others handle things in your absence. Ultimately, setting healthy boundaries will empower others and create a more manageable work-life for yourself.

Stick to Specific Hours

Do you find yourself working 12 hour days or bringing your work into the weekend? When there’s too few hours left for other aspects of life, it’s time to rework your work schedule. Use a New Year’s resolution to set a limit on how much you’ll work during each day or on the weekend.

This is specific for your needs, so figure out a reasonable cap, and commit to it. If you decide to only work until 6pm, shut your computer down at 6pm and pick back up in the morning. Working until you feel frayed likely isn’t what coworkers, employees, or clients would like or expect of you.

Quick New Year’s Resolution Tips for Success

• Don’t over-commit yourself to unrealistic goals
• Create a healthy reward system for each success
• Develop a path to your goal filled with benchmarks you’d like to hit along the way
• Keep a schedule of which benchmarks you’d like to hit when, and hold yourself accountable
• Write your goals down in a notebook and keep track of your progress
• Find new ways to stay motivated

By working on yourself, you can do better work in your career. Use these professional New Year’s resolution ideas as a starting point to craft your own goals for a more productive year.