It’s the end of the year. You’ve made it. But that doesn’t mean it’s time to switch off. We’re here to give you a guide on how to prepare yourself at work for the coming New Year.
This is the time you should be looking at what you can do to get ahead and make sure you’re ready for when the New Year comes around. With that being said, we’ve decided to look at a few ways you can prepare yourself at work for the upcoming year.
Reflect On Your Year
Now is the perfect time to look back on the past year and list everything you’ve managed to achieve.
Being able to see all of your accomplishments will give you a sense of pride in your work and give you that extra motivation you need. Not only will this allow you to see all of the hard work you’ve put in, but can provide evidence when it comes to things such as interviews for promotions or performance reviews.
If you leave it too late, you might forget what you have done so don’t wait on it.
Set Yourself New Goals
After you’ve had time to reflect on everything you’ve done this year, it’s time to look ahead.
Setting goals for yourself is a fantastic way to track your progress and give you something to work for. Make a list of everything that you want to accomplish over the next year and add dates you want to complete them by. Adding goal deadlines will give you a time limit and will apply that little bit of pressure that you’ll need to keep pushing you forward.
Keep these goals somewhere where you are likely to see them, as they can get a great reminder of where you are headed and good motivation for whenever you feel yourself getting stuck.
Finish Off On-going Projects
This should go without saying, but finishing off any on-going projects before the New Year will make your work life a lot easier.
You don’t want to be starting the year already behind schedule, so finish any outstanding work where possible. It’s not as if the work will have magically disappeared when you return, so get it finished now so you don’t have to worry.
Discuss Your Plans For Next Year
After you’ve decided on your goals and aims for the upcoming year, sit down with your team or employer and discuss it with them.
Sitting down with your boss is a great way of finding out how you have been performing over the last year or so. You should be asking for some ways you can improve going forward and what they want from you over the next year. Having this meeting will give you the chance to express any interest in going for promotions or progressing in the company as well and will only look good in your favour.
This also works vice versa if you are the person in charge, as your employees will value the feedback and they know exactly what you expect of them going forward.
Talking about your plans and ideas for the company will go a long way in showing you care about your job and that you want to succeed.
Plan For A Better You
Take this time to look at your current attitude towards work and see how you can improve yourself and become a better employee.
Work can be tough sometimes, but complaining about it doesn’t help anybody. Having a more positive attitude will only lead to good things and you’ll find you can establish better working relationships with colleagues this way.
If you struggle to get everything done in time, try different methods to improve your time management. Planning out your time can be a crucial factor to getting all of your work done on schedule and will give you a better perspective on what’s left to be done.
It’s very tempting to browse the web or go on Facebook when work starts to feel a little tedious, but don’t waste your time on procrastinating. You should be striving to become a better employer and excel at your job. Being there and trying harder will make the work no longer feel like work.
Apply yourself and you will see results.
Learn The Right Skills To Progress
If you’re looking to move up the corporate ladder within the next year, you’re likely going to have to learn a few new tricks to land yourself the role you want.
Consider the necessary skills that you will need to learn to achieve the role that you are after and take the right steps towards educating yourself. In this day and age, technology is such an important part of our lives and you don’t have to leave the house in order to better yourself.
You can find lots of different courses and seminars on how to get to where you want to be online, so there are no excuses.
If you really want to make an impact, get in early and apply yourself.
Organise, Organise, Organise
We’ve sorted out your future, so let’s look at the present.
Use this time to clear out your desk of anything that you don’t need. To properly prepare yourself at work for the coming year, you need to be clean. You’re bound to have assembled a mound of paper on your desk that you probably won’t ever need again, so don’t hold back.
A clean desk is a clean mind, and what better way to start the New Year than with some space to put your cup of tea.
You can apply the same to your emails and voicemails. Don’t be afraid to delete or archive emails that are months or even years old. Leaving them there will only take up space and slow your computer down, so get rid where you can.
On the subject of emails, make sure that you’ve set up an out-of-office reply for any emails you might receive over the festive break. Not every business shuts down for Christmas, so it’s best not to leave anyone feeling ignored and leave an auto-respond messaging letting them know you will respond to them in the New Year.
Time To Relax
Now that you’ve taken all the steps to get ahead and prepare yourself at work for the New Year, it’s time to enjoy yourself.
Make the most of the work-free days off and feel refreshed when you come back to work in January. You’ve earned it.
As a Managing Director at Wurkplace since May 2010, Karen has extensive HR, employment law and health and Safety experience from working within the private sector.
She also boasts experience of working in the public sector including local authority, fire service, police, schools, colleges, charities, NHS.