Monday, December 08, 2008

Top 10 Resolutions for Workplace Success

The end of the year is a good time to reflect on your progress over the past year and plan how you want to develop. Do you want increased success in 2009 or the chance to enjoy the success you've achieved more? These top 10 New Year's resolutions are designed to help you strike a better work-life balance, so you can achieve a truly satisfying success in the New Year.

1) Learn how to delegate and do more of it. There are so many things to do it's easy to delude ourselves that we need to do all of them. Then we wonder why we're so tired and frazzled and have no time to do anything else! Determine your personal return on investment and decide to let someone else do some of the tasks for a change. Delegation is the key to a healthy work-life balance.

2) Promote yourself regularly and consistently.
Too often the task of promoting yourself and your skills slips to the bottom of the to-do list in the press of urgent tasks. If you want to get a raise, earn a promotion or just get noticed, you have to make self promotion a priority.

3) Make planning a weekly event.
Planning is vital if you want a healthy, growing professional life. Planning lets you take stock of what worked and what didn't work, and helps you set new directions or adjust old goals. So why do it just once a year or once a quarter? Set aside time each week to review, adjust, and look forward - or even better, make planning a part of each day. Not only will this help you avoid costly mistakes and stay on track, but you'll feel more focused and relaxed.

4) Learn something new.
What you choose to learn may be directly related to your job or completely unrelated. Learning something new will add to your skills and add a new dimension of interest to your life - another important part of achieving a healthy work-life balance. Depending on how you choose to learn, you may meet new and interesting people, who may become customers, colleagues, or friends. How will you find the time to learn something new? By delegating, remember?

5) Join a new volunteer organization or networking group.
There's nothing like talking to other people for sparking new ideas, refining old ones, and making contacts. Whether it's a group specifically designed for networking or an organization dedicated to a particular type of business, in person or over the 'Net, making the effort to be a part of a group will revitalize you.

6) Give something back to your community.
There are all kinds of worthy organizations that make a difference in your community. Make a New Year's resolution to find a cause that matters to you, and give what you can. Make this the year that you serve on a committee, be a mentor, volunteer, or make regular donations to the groups in your community that try to make the place you live a better place.

7) Put time for you on your calendar.
It is important to take the time to recharge and refresh yourself; a healthy work-life balance demands time out. All work and no play is a recipe for mental and physical disaster. So if you have trouble freeing up time to do the things you enjoy, write time regularly into your schedule to "meet with yourself" and stick to that commitment. If you won't invest in yourself, who will?

8) Set realistic goals.
Goal setting is a valuable habit - if the goals lead to success rather than distress. Make a New Year's resolution that the goals you set will be goals that are achievable, rather than unrealistic pipe dreams that are so far out of reach they only lead to frustration.

9) Don't make do; get a new one.
Is there a piece of equipment in your office that's interfering with your success or something that you lack that's making your working life harder? Whether it's an old fax machine that's a pain to use, or the need for a new employee to lighten your work load, make a New Year's resolution to stop putting off getting what you need. The irritation of making do just isn't worth it.

10) Drop what's not working for you and move on.
If a technique or a product or a business relationship isn't working for you, stop using it. Don't invest a lot of energy into trying to make the unworkable workable. Move on. Something better will turn up.

Achieving a healthy work-life balance is like maintaining a good relationship; you have to keep working on it. But if you apply these New Year's resolutions throughout the year, your success is guaranteed!

Adpated from an article from about.com.

December Theme - Making better resolutions


Welcome back to this blog featuring articles, tips and resources on our favorite subject areas. Starting in December, we will begin featuring a new subject theme each month and publish posts in that theme for that month - schedule your time to come visit us in the months that matter to you - or subscribe to our feed and get an email each time a new post is made.

Here's what you can expect:

December 2008 - Resolutions

January 2009 - Planning and Strategizing

February 2009 - Motivation and Morale

March 2009 - Team Building

April 2009 - Creativity and Innovation

May 2009 - Adult Learning

June 2009 - Culture and Diversity at Work

July 2009 - Time and Priority Management

August 2009 - Sales and Service

September 2009 - Coaching for Performance

October 2009 - Project Management

November 2009 - Leadership and Management

December 2009 - Change