New Year’s Day is marked with many parties, celebrations, and of course, New Years resolutions.
New Year’s resolutions have a bit of a bad reputation. This is because many people resolve to do a number of things in the New Year and rarely ever follow through them in the long term.
One of such is New Years projects. These projects could be personal or relating to one’s work or career.
It could be tempting to give up on your New Year’s resolutions before you make any significant progress but with the right guidance and steps, you can complete your New Year’s project successfully.
Consider the following steps to execute your New Year’s project.
- Decide on a timeline: It is easy to say that you will complete a certain task, but it will be much more effective if you divide the various steps involved in executing the project and give them a timeline.
For example, you might want to write a book in a year. Instead of planning to simply ‘write a book’, outline how many chapters the book will contain and assign a deadline to each step.
By focusing on smaller, individual tasks and not the entirety of the project, you are less likely to get overwhelmed and give up.
- Create habits that drive progress: It is one thing to plan towards a project and another thing to actually take steps towards the project.
Decide on the steps that will be needed to execute your project. For example, writing your book might require writing a thousand words a day.
Figure out a task you engage in every day such as watching television or reading a book and attach this task to them. You could, for example, write a thousand words before you watch television.
This helps you stay on track with your tasks and makes you less likely to give up.
- Seek professional help: If the project you are working on is a particularly complex one or one that is related to your career, you might want to brush up on your project management skills.
While there are entire university courses related to project management, you might not have to go that far.
Instead, consider taking a course with an online resource such as e-careers. These will help you not only study project management in-depth, but also prepare for professional certifications such as the Prince2 Foundation exam.
This will not only help you in executing projects but can also help you move ahead in your career.
- Get an accountability partner: You are more likely to stick to your resolutions if you have someone you are accountable to.
Find a close friend or family member who is also working on a New Year’s project or resolution.
Reach out to each other periodically and keep each other committed to your tasks.
Conclusion
Staying on track with your New Year’s resolutions doesn’t have to be a complex task.
Follow the above tips to ensure that you execute your New Year’s projects seamlessly.
