10 Professional New Year’s Resolutions
Publié le 16 December 2020
With 2020 finally coming to an end, everybody is looking toward a new year filled with promise and potential. If you want to set goals and plan for career success in 2021, it’s time to make some professional New Year’s resolutions. Take the time to review your professional ambitions and create a plan that works for you and will lead to achievement. To help you get started, here are Jobillico’s 10 professional New Year’s resolutions, and be sure to check out Part 2!
10 Professional New Year’s Resolutions (Part 1)
- Drink More Water
- Get More Sleep
- Set Boundaries
- Be More Focused
- Improve Time Management
Drink More Water
How much water have you drunk today? Not coffee, not energy drinks, just plain water? If you’re like 75% of people the answer is not enough. While the exact amount of water needed in a day varies from person to person, what is true is that everyone needs to stay hydrated to maintain proper physical health. This means prioritizing water over coffee, energy drinks and sodas that can actually cause you to become further dehydrated.
Even mild dehydration can cause symptoms like dizziness, blurred vision, headaches and low energy. It’s not enjoyable to feel this way under any circumstances, let alone when you’re trying to get some work done. If you want to make drinking more water one of your professional New Year’s resolutions, try different techniques such as setting an alarm and having a water schedule that will remind you when it’s time to hydrate.
Get More Sleep
Is the snooze button simultaneously your best friend and worst enemy? It could be a sign that you’re not getting the right amount of sleep. Sleep is a very important component in maintaining a proper physical, mental and emotional life. The amount of sleep required changes from person to person, but a majority of people need at least 7 hours of good sleep each night in order to function at their best. Forget what those rise-and-grinder’s say, chronic sleep deprivation will not help anyone and is not the key to achieving success.
What is unfortunate is that the number of people experiencing irregular sleep and related issues is on the rise. This can be attributed to circumstances that are both within and out of our control. Many people fall asleep reading phones, tables and computers, which study after study has shown is bad for sleep quality. It also can accentuate feelings of stress and anxiety, which can be very detrimental to a good night. Unfortunately, there has been a lot to be stressed and anxious about in 2020, so it is important to take control of the factors that you are able to, and let yourself off the hook for the many things that are beyond your control.
There are various techniques that are used to improve sleep, such as limiting time with tech devices before bed, blackout curtains and meditation techniques. Don’t be afraid to try a few different things and see if something works for you. You deserve a good night’s sleep that will leave you rested and recharged.
And if you’re reading this on your phone, turn it off and go to sleep.
Set Boundaries
Remember when work and life were two separate things? For millions of workers in Canada, 2020 was the year that those two worlds became one literally overnight. While working from home has played a large part in keeping people healthy and continues to be an important part of necessary distancing measures, it must be said that the transition is not without difficulty. Maintaining a proper work-life balance is an important goal of many professionals, and one that almost a third of Canadian workers were already struggling with before the events of 2020.
With a significant number of people working from home for the foreseeable future, setting boundaries between work time and personal time should be a popular professional New Year’s resolution. One of the negative aspects of work from home job roles is that it does not allow for a clear distinction between the two, leading to employees working longer hours and feeling increased stress and anxiety at all times of the day, making it far more likely they will experience employee burnout.
Employers and employees need to discuss setting clear expectations and boundaries regarding work obligations and personal time while working from home. It must be clear to both that employees are not expecting to be completing work and answering emails at all hours of the day. Likewise, employees should strive to create dedicated work time to complete the tasks that are expected of them. This is not easy, especially for employees with families and children, but with open communication and support from employers, workers can take whatever steps they can to set up boundaries between professional and personal life, improving both in the process.
Be More Focused
Distractions can be a major problem when you’re trying to get work done. The problem is, however, that the world is filled with distraction. Each notification on our phones, email that pops on our screen and unnecessary meetings that eat up time is a distraction that will make it harder to remain focused. Studies find that for each distraction that pulls attention away from work, it will take an average of 23 minutes for an employee to refocus on the task at hand. Employers need to do everything possible to create a streamlined and distraction-free work environment, such as limiting meetings, and even reconsidering the open-concept office space.
For employees working from home, it is up to themselves to achieve and remain focused. This can be easier said than done while being surrounded by all of the comforts of home. It’s hard to focus on work when your brand new Playstation 5 is sitting right there waiting to be played with (especially after selling a kidney to be able to afford one off ebay). If your professional New Year’s resolution is to be more focused during work hours, there are different methods you can use. These include creating a workspace free of distraction, meaning no tv, music or video games. You can also place your phone in a different room and turn off email notifications to avoid interruptions, only checking for important messages at specific break times.
For those working at home with families and roommates some distractions and interruptions are unavoidable, and it’s important to recognize it as such. There will be situations that must be dealt with immediately, and this is not your fault. If you work to create a strong habit of being focused during work hours, when situations arise that need your immediate attention it will likely be easier to regain your focus once it has been addressed.
Improve Time Management
There’s never the right amount of time. Sometimes there’s too much, but it mostly feels like there isn’t enough. Time management is an important skill for people in all industries, fields of work and professions. Employers, clients and colleagues will expect tasks and projects to be completed by certain deadlines. Proper time management is also important for workers, because they always complete tasks in an orderly fashion without letting work pile up, which can easily lead to increased stress and burnout.
Having a schedule, structure and deadline can help increase productivity and keep multiple projects in focus. Make sure to plan ahead and give yourself the time you need to do your best work. Employers and managers should always encourage employees to be honest when asking for the estimated time a task or project will take to complete. This way you will be able to do your best work without feeling pressure to meet a deadline that should never have been set in the first place. There are different time management techniques that you can try, such as the Pomodoro Technique. It involves breaking your work day into a 25 minutes period of focused work, followed by a 5 minute break. In the New Year, experiment with different schedules and time management techniques to find the one that works best with your own internal work rhythm.
Setting professional New Year’s resolutions is a good way to envision your goals and chart your path to success in 2021.
Be sure to check out Part 2 of our list of 10 Professional New Year’s Resolutions!
