As we rapidly approach the end of the year, it’s time to reflect on all of your achievements and successes, identifying what has worked well in the past year and what could be improved upon.
We’re talking about taking stock of your professional life and making changes, and with the lines between the professional and the personal becoming increasingly blurred, and with most of us struggling to achieve a good work-life balance, it might be a good time to make a few resolutions that will improve both your professional and in turn your personal life.
Check out our suggestions:
- Get down with digital
Social media and online marketing is one of the best ways to attract customers, interact and engage with them and spread the word about your brand. With more and more of us relying on the online world for information, you have no excuse to have dormant social media accounts, when it doesn’t take much effort to bring them to life. If you are already active, are you up to speed? Now is the time to review that strategy, take stock of new trends such as live streaming, and see how you can take your online activity to the next level. Finally, don’t neglect yourself, keep your personal branding alive and current through your own personal accounts.
- Be creative
Make a plan to set aside time and space to allow creative thinking. This is often the thing that gets neglected the quickest and yet with today’s customers increasingly seeking extra perceived value, recognition and individuality, it’s important to keep your thinking fresh and to find new ways to promote your business and recognize your customers. Create a new marketing plan, either on your own or with the help of a new marketing expert, for the year ahead, taking into account the new trends in the digital arena in particular, and give yourself regular review periods to ensure you keep on track.
- Designate an electronics-free zone
This resolution applies to your home and the workplace. At home, ban electronics from your bedroom, for the sake of your physical and mental health as there are already studies that show how artificial light from electronics can mess with our sleep quality. Keep one space in your home and at the office free from electronics where you can enjoy an uninterrupted recharge after a stressful meeting or day, and a place which will also facilitate the creative thinking detailed in resolution #2 without distraction.
- Learn to delegate work
You wont succeed if you insist on doing everything alone. Focus on using your strengths and skills and delegate the rest in order to increase your productivity and quality of work. Doing it properly means learning to trust other people – giving them a good brief and letting them get on with it. Whether you delegate a task that is beyond your scope or expertise, or train others to work on tasks you no longer want to do, make it a goal to delegate some work to others for a change.
- Hire smarter
Think about the resource you have and what you want to achieve for the year, and make a note of any deficits. If you’re looking to keep costs low or have flexible arrangements, it might be worth working with contract workers or freelancers, which is becoming increasingly common. Learn to entrust your work to a reputable company and you’ll find you have a lot more time to focus on more pressing matters at work.
Unfortunately the majority of New Year resolutions tend to be broken within the first few weeks, but that needn’t be the case if you set yourself achievable goals and have the support you need to accomplish them. Give yourself a head start to keeping those resolutions by giving us a call and finding out what we can do to help you.