60 New Year's resolutions for work (and how to keep them)
Good New Year's resolutions for work are small, specific habits you can start next week, like blocking focus time or putting the ask in an email's first line. Pick one to three, share them with your team and check in at 30, 60 and 90 days.
Below are 60 work resolutions in five groups: focus, communication, growth, wellbeing and team habits. The first four groups are personal; the last twelve are team resolutions a manager can put to a vote. Each one is a habit you can start in the first week of January, not a vague wish. Then pick yours in the builder, run a 30-minute resolutions session with your team, and use the check-in questions to keep them going.
Focus and time resolutions
For anyone whose day disappears into chat and meetings. Pick the one that names your biggest leak.
1. Block two 90-minute focus sessions a week and treat them like a meeting with my manager.
2. Keep email and chat closed for the first hour of the workday.
3. Write tomorrow's top three tasks before I log off each evening.
4. Mute every channel I don't need to read on the same day.
5. Save small admin jobs for one 30-minute slot on Friday afternoons.
6. Finish the task in front of me before I open a new one.
7. Ask "what can wait?" before I say yes to new work.
8. Get my inbox under 20 messages every Friday.
9. Keep a parking-lot note for stray ideas so they don't break my focus.
10. Review next week's calendar every Friday and drop one meeting I don't need.
11. Do the hardest task of the day before lunch.
12. End meetings I run five minutes early so nobody runs late to the next one.
Want a host to run the goal-setting session?
Resolutions stick better when someone outside the team runs the session: the manager gets to take part instead of lead, and a live host keeps every person on track to leave with a first step. It works on video, so remote teammates join the same session. Hosted sessions run about 60 minutes and book about 2 weeks ahead.
Live-hosted, about an hour, on Zoom (Teams, Google Meet or Webex on request). Today’s prices:
Goal Setting & Goal Getting$1,200 flat for the group
Maximizing Time Management$1,200 flat for the group
Success SuperchargeStarting at $34 USD / person
Bucket List ExperienceStarting at $10 USD / person
Communication resolutions
Small habits that make you easier to work with. Coworkers notice these within a week.
13. Answer every direct question within one working day, even if the answer is "I'll know Thursday."
14. Put the ask in the first line of every email.
15. Send a written recap within an hour of every meeting I run.
16. Thank one person a week by name for something specific they did.
17. Ask "what would make this easier for you?" in every one-on-one.
18. Move any thread that passes five replies to a ten-minute call.
19. Share drafts when they are a third done, not when they are nearly finished.
20. Write a short "how to work with me" note and share it with my team.
21. Give feedback within two days instead of saving it for review season.
22. Ask one question before I give my opinion in a discussion.
23. Say hello to two coworkers I rarely talk to each week.
24. Say "I don't know yet" instead of guessing.
Growth and learning resolutions
Resolutions that build a skill a little at a time, so there is something new to show by the summer.
25. Learn one new feature of a tool I use every day, once a month.
26. Read one article about my field each week and share the best one with the team.
27. Shadow someone in another department for an hour this quarter.
28. Ask for one piece of feedback after every big project.
29. Present something at a team meeting once a quarter.
30. Find a mentor, or offer to be one.
31. Pick one online course and finish it before spring.
32. Write down what I learned at the end of each month.
33. Volunteer for one project that uses a skill I haven't used yet.
34. Teach a 15-minute lunch session on something I know well.
35. Keep a wins file with results and kind words to bring to my review.
36. Learn how my team's work shows up in the company's yearly results.
Want a growth resolution with a number and a date on it? Turn it into one of these SMART goals for work. If time is the real blocker, the hosted Maximizing Time Management workshop covers priorities and procrastination in an hour.
Wellbeing resolutions for work
Rest is part of doing good work. These keep the year from running you down by March.
37. Take a real lunch break away from the screen at least three days a week.
38. Use all my paid time off, starting with one day booked before February ends.
39. Log off at a set time and put "done for the day" on my calendar.
40. Take one walking meeting a week.
41. Stand up and stretch once an hour at my desk.
42. Mute work chat on my phone over the weekend.
43. Say yes to one social invite at work each month.
44. Raise my screen to eye level and fix my chair this week.
45. Take five quiet minutes before a big meeting instead of rushing in.
46. Ask for help on the day I get stuck, not a week later.
47. Keep one hobby on my calendar every week.
48. Leave my laptop at work, or in a drawer, on one evening a week.
Want the team to start the year rested? Book a guided session from our virtual wellness events so the wellbeing resolutions start on day one, together.
Team resolutions for the new year
For managers and teams that want one shared habit. Vote on one, try it for 90 days, then keep it or swap it.
49. Open every team meeting with one win from a different person.
50. Keep one meeting-free afternoon a week for the whole team.
51. Write every decision in one shared place on the day we make it.
52. Mark every finished project with a five-minute shout-out.
53. Take turns running the weekly team meeting.
54. Post the team's top three priorities on the first workday of every month.
55. Cut every recurring meeting by 15 minutes and see what breaks.
56. Hand off work with a short written note, so nothing lives in one head.
57. Run a 20-minute retro after every big project: keep, drop, try.
58. Ask questions in the team channel instead of private messages, so everyone learns the answer.
59. Hold one team social a month and take turns choosing it.
60. Give every new teammate a buddy and a first-week plan.
Pair the team vote with something fun: our virtual New Year's events put a hosted game or workshop in the same week, with live prices.
Pick your resolutions and copy them
Tap up to three from any group, or write your own. Set the day you start and the builder adds your 30, 60 and 90-day check-in dates, ready to paste into chat, a doc or a calendar note.
How to run a 30-minute resolutions session in January
Hold it in the first two weeks of January, while the year still feels new. You need this page on screen, a timer and a way to vote.
- Look back. (5 min) Everyone writes one thing that went well at work last year and one thing they would change. Nobody shares yet.
- Browse. (5 min) Put this list on screen. Each person picks up to three resolutions that answer their "would change" note, or writes their own.
- Narrow in threes. (10 min) In groups of three, each person cuts to one or two and says the first step they will take next week. The other two ask: is it small enough to start Monday?
- Pick a team resolution. (5 min) Read out the team habits list and vote with a show of hands or a poll. The top one becomes the team's resolution for the next 90 days.
- Commit. (5 min) Everyone posts their resolution in the team channel and puts the 30, 60 and 90-day check-ins in their calendar before leaving.
In the office, hybrid or on video
- In the office: One sticky note per resolution on a wall, sorted into the five groups. The team vote is dot stickers.
- Hybrid: One shared doc everyone types into, the room joins as its own group of three, and the vote is a poll so remote voices count the same.
- On video: Breakout rooms of three for the narrowing step, the built-in poll for the team vote, and the builder above to copy each list into chat.
Rather fold it into a longer January meeting? Our kickoff meeting ideas have agendas with a slot for it, and a virtual lunch and learn turns the session into an hour with a live expert on goals, focus or wellbeing.
Check-ins at 30, 60 and 90 days
Fifteen minutes in a team meeting or a one-on-one. Most resolutions fade in February because nobody asks about them; a check-in is the asking.
Day 30
Is it happening?
- Did you take the first step? What got in the way?
- If it slipped, make the step smaller rather than dropping the resolution.
Day 60
Is it still the right one?
- Keep it, change it or swap it for another from the list.
- Share one result, however small, with the team.
Day 90
Habit or goal?
- If it stuck, it is a habit now: say so and pick the next one.
- If it grew into a project, write it as a goal for the next quarter.
Five rules that keep a work resolution alive
- Pick one to three. Ten resolutions means none of them is the priority.
- Start next week. If the first step can't happen by Friday, it is too big. Shrink it.
- Tell the team. A resolution shared with the team gets asked about, which is most of the work.
- Book the check-ins now. Three calendar holds take a minute in January and save the resolution in March.
- Let it change. Swapping a resolution at day 60 is a good result, not a failure.
