New Year, New Career Goals

It’s January 2022, a new month, and a fresh new year ✨

Are you a person who likes to set new year’s resolutions?

How often do you set career new year’s resolutions? 💼

Work is such a big part of our lives. Have you taken time out to reflect on your professional life, and how it fits with your lifestyle and life goals? Have you made plans for your future, however lightly? If not, we think you should give it a go.

Here are our top six career goals you may want to set for yourself this year:

Number 1 – Address My Work Environment 👀

Are you prone to feeling burnt out from work? Do you feel distant from your co-workers? Do you find it hard to switch off from work at the end of the day? If you answered yes to any of these questions, it might be worth re-evaluating your current work environment.

✔️ If you find your workload is causing you to burn out, speak to your boss and agree on a workload that works for both of you.

✔️ If you are struggling to connect with your co-workers, think of ways you could nurture these interpersonal relationships to help yourself become more immersive within your team.

✔️ If your mind is ticking away with work worries at the end of the day, speak to your boss or co-workers to identify ways you can improve your work-life balance.

If you have reoccurring issues within your work environment – it may be worth moving on to something new.

Whatever challenges you are facing right now, take a step back and re-evaluate your work environment to identify how to improve your professional life.

Number 2 – Look After My Mental Health & Well Being 🧠

“Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life”

– Dolly Parton

Of course, you should enjoy your job, but if you find it hard to switch off from a busy day’s work, your personal life and wellbeing will suffer.

If this sounds like you, you may want to set goals that will help you improve your work-life balance. Maybe you want to spend more time with your friends or family during the working week, or make a point of reading instead of checking your work emails before you go to bed.

Whatever it is, maintaining a healthy work-life balance is essential to ensure you get the rest you need whilst making time for other important things in your life.

Number 3 – Re-think My Organisation ✔️

If you want to get more organised this year, reflect on how you have been organising your work and ask yourself:

• How could you better organise your emails? ✉️

• How could you better plan for projects? 📝

• How could you work more efficiently towards deadlines? 🚫

When answering these questions, you may find that fixing your physical or digital workspace is what’s in order. Have a good clean and clear out of your workspace and make use of folders and excel spreadsheets to help you physically and mentally refresh yourself for the new year 🌟

Number 4 – Set Boundaries 🚫

Did you experience burnout or work-related stress last year? If so, you may have been taking on more work than you should have.

Sometimes, saying “no” is the right thing to do for both you and your boss or co-workers. Taking on too much work can lead to burnout. This not only will impact you both physically and mentally, but it will also reduce your productivity. Therefore, it is in everyone’s best interest that you are realistic about your workload to prevent yourself from becoming too overwhelmed.

If this describes you, then you may want to start setting healthy boundaries with your boss and colleagues to help you better manage your workload.

Number 5 – Take That Risk 🔥

“The future depends on what you do today”

– Mahatma Gandhi

• Do you have a dream job you have been reluctant to pursue? 🌟

• Is there a course you’ve been wanting to join onto? 📝

• Do you feel you deserve a promotion you have not received yet? 📈

Whatever it is, make this year your year to do something for you. Reflect on where you are right now and where you want to be. What steps can you take to get there? If it feels too overwhelming right now, start small and work your way up 👊

Number 6 – Better Maintain My Focus 🔎

Whatever work or projects you invest time into this year, you may want to find ways to better maintain your focus on them.

Maybe you need to be more conscious of the breaks you are taking – are you taking enough of them and at the right time?

Our attention span is typically around 20-25 minutes, so methods such as the Pomodoro Technique can help maintain our focus and productivity throughout the day.

The Pomodoro Technique

• Work for 25 minutes ✍️

• Take a 5 minute break ☕

• Repeat this 4 times 🔁

• Then take a 15-20 minute break

There are plenty of other methods you can try to keep your motivation and productivity up – take the time to find the ones that work for you ✔️

From all of us at Yellow Bricks, we wish you a happy and healthy 2022 ⭐

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Yellow Bricks is an Executive Search Recruitment company hiring exceptional people at a senior level for high growth Tech companies.