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6 New Year's Resolutions for the Lazy Professional

Dec 8, 2015 Kate Lopaze

6 New Year's Resolutions for the Lazy Professional

We all get a little lazy sometimes. Or rather, we get a little too comfortable in our jobs, and things start to slide ever so slightly. As you get ready to make your resolutions for the new year, think about doing some super-easy things to start 2017. And think how accomplished you’ll feel when you check them off!

1. Make inroads with one coworker.

If you find you’re having lunch with the same peeps every day or you stand awkwardly silent at the copier while another colleague does the same, aim to connect with a new person. You don’t have to become BFFs, but a little coworker bonding outside your comfort zone is not only good for you, it’s good for workplace morale in general.

2. Set a distraction-free hour each day.

We’re all champs at multitasking these days. You can run reports while checking voicemail and also checking Facebook. I get it. I do it too. But what if you gave something your whole attention for just one hour? That means no checking FunCelebrityNewz.com, or personal email, or whatever your biggest distraction temptation is. It will still be there when you go back, and you might find that your hour of focus helps you find solutions you might not have seen if you were trying to do four things at once.

3. Walk around your office.

This one sounds weird, I know. This doesn’t mean “be a creeper who stands at the edge of someone else’s cubicle.” But every once in a while, take a lap around your office when you have a few spare minutes. The obvious benefit is that it gets you away from your desk for a bit, but it’s also nice to see your colleagues at work. We can get so mired in our own day-to-day stuff that it gets easy to forget that everyone is working toward a common goal. Step back and look at your beehive, and it might re-energize your feelings about your role there. (Or make you want to realize you want to get out and go to a different hive, stat.)

4. Check your voicemail.

You know, that one message that’s been hanging around forever, the one you skipped at the time for whatever reason and is now haunting your phone like Jacob Marley’s ghost? Even if it’s not a relevant to-do, listen to the whole thing, then delete. Satisfying!

5. Take down your OOO.

Don’t be That Guy who has his “out of office” message up three days after he got back from vacation. Nothing tells bosses and colleagues “I don’t want to be here” quite like a zippy “I’m out!” message when everybody knows you’re sitting at your desk.

6. Think about your goals for the year.

Don’t write anything down, don’t create a PowerPoint. Just think about what you want to achieve. You can even use part of your distraction-free hour to do this! Of course, at some point you’ll probably need to take concrete steps to make said goals happen, but for now just think about it. You’d be surprised how many people don’t take the time to think through their wants and goals, and that makes it tough when you’re put on the spot when it’s review time, or when you really need to make a career change. You've got this. These are resolutions we can keep even when we’re not feeling like the biggest go-getters.

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