Looking for new years resolutions ideas for work that you can ACTUALLY stick to?
I’ve got you covered!
If it is your goal to have better work life balance in 2022, you might be saying things like I
I want more free time.
I want better work life balance.
I wanna be less stressed,
BUT none of those goals tell me what’s important to you or how you are gonna get there.
They need to be specific and important to you. Otherwise, you’re gonna have no idea that you’ve actually achieved it or not.
Disclaimer, before we get started! I don’t think that you should just be doing this at new year’s. I also think that you should give yourself a bit of grace to update these as you go, because you can become a new person any time of the year. You can just make the decision to do things differently at work.
So, disclaimer, aside here are a few new year’s resolutions ideas that will help you get better work life balance. I have split these into five main categories and they are time, money, self care, stress, and learning.
Want to watch this instead of reading it? Check out the YouTube video I did on new years resolutions ideas for work below!
20+ New Years Resolutions Ideas For Work You Might ACTUALLY DO
Time New Years Resolutions Ideas
1) Plan out your annual leave NOW
So instead of saying ‘I should probably take a holiday”, plan that out now.
Is there a hotel you’ve always wanted to visit?
Do you wanna visit family more?
Is there a trip you’ve been putting off because there’s just never a good time.
Plan it out now and make sure it happens.
2) Finish on time every day/close your laptop on time
Finishing on time is HABIT that you can train yourself to do.
In Atomic Habits by James Clear, he talks about how a visual representation of your habits can help. So for example you could have two containers on your desk. Put 5 beads in one, and when you finish work on time, move it to the other cup to visually tick off the days that you have finished on time.
If you are finishing late more often than not, then we can set extra goals around whether it’s time to find a different job.
Because that’s the bottom line. If your goal is to get home to your family, you need to be able to measure it, and if your current work life doesn’t LET you achieve that goal, it’s time to rethink your priorities.
3) Wake up slightly earlier each day
I’m not talking 5am, I’m married to a personal trainer and it SUCKS to get up that early if you don’t want to.
Just early enough that you don’t have to rush to get ready. Let your central nervous system wake up naturally.
Money New Years Resolutions
4) Raise your zero/increase your expenses buffer
What I mean by that is that instead letting your account get to zero every week, you create a new zero.
So say “I am not going to let my account get below a hundred.” “I am not gonna let it get below a thousand.”
And that might take a little bit of scrimping and saving- but only for a little while.
Setting this as a new years resolution is going to help your work life because you’re not going to feel like you have to say yes, because you’ve got money in your account.
5) Limit yourself to eating out to once per week until you raise your zero
But only until you have that expenses buffer! I don’t buy into denying ourselves happiness, financial or otherwise.
If you want to learn how to organize your money, without having to sacrifice all fun and social life, check out my money mastery workshop linked in my resources page here.
6) Start a High Yield Savings Account
Once you’ve figured out that expenses buffer, is to start a high yield savings account.
Having a high yield savings account and an emergency fund means that you can make decisions without money being the bottom line.
For example, if you decide that you need to quit a toxic job, you have the money there to do it.
This gives you a lot more control over your work life!
If you’re in the US, Chime is probably one of your best options. Other wise, just search high yield savings account in your country.
Self Care Related New Years Resolutions
7) Make new friends/Join an existing community
The next category is self care. Obviously I can’t make a list about resolutions and work life balance without addressing self care!
So the 7th new years resolution idea for work is to make new friends or join an existing community.
I’m all about the life and work life balance and having things to look forward to outside of work.
For example, in my own life, it was my resolution to hike more, which is a little bit vague. So instead I made the resolution to join a hiking group. That way I’m not solely responsible for making it happen AND I can expand my networks AND make friends AND exercise more.
8) Plan your free time in advance
Number eight is to plan your self care time in advance.
Don’t make it an afterthought!
You need to come first and planning in advance is going to make all of your other resolutions way easier.
I have resource called the MWAH Method which is how you plan your weekly work life balance week in advance which you can find in my work life balance resources.
9) Start a gratitude practice
This doesn’t have to be a gratitude journal.
I’m really bad at sticking to daily journaling!
Some other ways that my husband and I have figured out for being grateful as ask things like,
- “What am I looking forward to at the moment?”
- “What went right today?”
- “Why are we lucky”
Stress Related New Years Resolutions
Stress comes when you feel overworked and don’t feel in control of your decisions. So let’s set some goals around clearing mental clutter and taking back control of your work life!
10) Decide if you want to stay in your job another year
If you’ve been in your job a while, it’s easy to
- Get scared that people will judge you for throwing your progress away, And
- Two get stuck in sunk cost fallacy where you think you may as well stick in out because you’ve already put in this much time and effort.
Even if it’s hella toxic, your brain just makes excuses to stay.
However, quitting in itself is progress overall because it’s helping you progress to what you actually want to be doing.
It’s not always best to never give up and finish what you started. We don’t do that kind of hustle culture around here.
11) Do a technological declutter
Archive emails from last year (They’ll still be there, You just don’t have to look at them).
Clean up your desktop. Clean out your download file.
Start the year fresh. It’s definitely one of the best resolutions you can make to de-stress solution.
12) Clean out your at home office
See the above reasons!
13) Create a technological Do Not Disturb schedule
Block out times for your phone and your laptop that you are not available.
It feels mean. It feels selfish. It feels stressful… at first.
And then you’ll realize is that you love that people can’t get a hold of you after a certain time.
14) Refresh your after hours/out of office email
The thing with work is that there will always be something else you could be doing.
You need to put the boundaries in place yourself -Otherwise you’re just gonna be working forever.
As well as an automatic response email, You could also put it in your email signature so that everybody is aware “After this time I am out of office.”
15) Do a career audit
#15 is similar to number 10 and that’s to do a career audit.
Imagine yourself five years ago, looking where you are now: is this where you’d imagine you would be?
Are you actually on track to your dream life? Does a dream life even exist? (That’s a whole other post in itself. Okay. We’ll come back to that.)
You underestimate how long five years really is.
If you’re not happy with where you are at and don’t want to be in the same place five years from now, it’s time to make some changes.
Learning New Years Resolutions
16) Commit to learning something new
Commit to learning something new and give yourself a timeframe- and make it a short timeframe.
Challenge yourself to learn something new in say the first two months of the year.
Don’t give yourself a whole year because then you’ll take a whole year and a year is a REALLY LONG ASS TIME.
Some examples that I’m gonna be learning are things like digital illustration, learning a new dance style, and learning how to landscape my own garden.
(And you might notice that none of these have anything to do with work. They’re just for me).
17) Learn how to network and make new friends
Number 17 is to learn how to network and break out of your friend groups.
So to put that into a specific goal:
- Research professional networking events in my city
- Put networking event in my calendar
- Go, even though I’m scared
Break it down a little bit instead of leaving it as a vague “network more”
18) Do something you’ve never done before
I’ve seen crazy videos where people do something new every single day or something that scares them every single day.
You don’t have to do at much, but write a list of things you’ve never tried before.
For example, until this week, I had never tried to mow the lawns. Before this year, I had never run my own live event. Never drunk a whiskey on the rocks. I’ve never choreographed a dance routine.
And this is what I mean by “focusing on the life part of work life balance”. Find things outside of work to look forward to.
19) Read Atomic habits
If you’ve been on my channel for a little while, you know that I talk about him a lot.
That’s because reading his book is going to make all of the other new years resolutions ideas for work way easier because it breaks them down into bite size habits.
20) Subscribe to my YouTube channel
And #20 20 is to subscribe to my channel so that I can remind you every single week to put yourself first and prioritize work life balance!
So tell me! Which of these New Years Resolutions ideas for work are you putting on your goals list for 2022?
