New Year, New Me?

Published

UGH, New Year's resolutions. 9 days into the New Year, are yours broken yet? Until 2018, I had never pledged a New Year's resolution. I saw it as too easy to set large unachievable goals only to be forgotten in a few weeks-- or days. BUT last year I gave myself one small resolution-- to bring my lunch to work every day.

Somehow, week after week I managed to pull it off. Sometimes it was a fancy grain bowl with roasted vegetables, most of the time it was left overs, occasionally it was peanut butter crackers. Out of the whole year I only missed 3 days. Not bad! The small action cut down on food waste, made me feel better, and helped save money.

This year, in addition to my personal New Year goals, I added a few professional ones as well. Nothing huge or overwhelming, just a few little steps that could end up having a large impact.

Start small with me!

-   Schedule NOCA update reminders quarterly in outlook (along with any other data health services)
-   Build that one report you really need
-   Set a weekly reminder to post to social media
-   Sign up for the training you put off last year
-   Update your auto responding messages
-   Update your welcome series
-   Schedule professional development time

What are your professional and personal goals for 2019? Small or large, share them in the comments below.

News Organizational Best Practices Blog 01/09/2019 10:42am EST

Added by Andrea Parker

16 Comments

Brittany Czekaj Nov '19

A little late to the game, but thanks for sharing this! These are great resolutions to keep in mind with 2020 on our heels.

My professional goal for 2020 is to become certified in RENXT (currently certified in RE) and continue to participate in monthly personal development webinars / lunch and learns.

My personal goal for 2020 is to exercise at least 5 days / week and make time for a date night with my husband each week!

Patrick Hogan Apr '19

One of my goals was bringing a lunch to work everyday. So far, doing pretty well, but not quite there yet. The other is to be more involved and taking more of the Best Practices courses. Still need to work on that one.

Faith Murray Apr '19

My personal goal was to swear off all potato chips and fritos this year. (There's always a bag of chips or a box of doughnuts set out in our office.) Professionally, My goal is to complete all of BB's Best Practices training classes and become certified.

Melissa Brown Mar '19

My biggest goal for 2019 besides remembering to bring my lunch on Tuesdays when the museum is closed is to schedule my time better. Because I often fill in for staff that work for me, especially when there are deadlines, I have to be careful not to go down the rabbit hole and spend more time working on their projects than mine! Especially when it comes to anything related to prospect research.

Sarah White Mar '19

Love these ideas! Having success with a smaller goal really creates its own momentum and helps the larger goals seem doable!

Marilyn Bellemore Mar '19

Great suggestions! Now that we have reached the last week of March, has anyone that set such goals still following them?

Christine Settles Mar '19

With the start of Spring (in some parts of the world, still a little longer to go here in VT!) I like to revisit my resolutions to see how they've fared and whether I need to adjust anything.
My work related resolution for this year is to be able to produce accurate quarterly financial statements from Financial Edge. I'm 2/3 of the way there with just a few formatting tweaks needed!
I've also got some professional development on tap and I'm hoping to complete a Blackbaud certification using my Champions points!

Alisse Gossett Feb '19

Late to the game, but I have resolutions none the less! I love the "starting small", as it always feel good to mark something off your list! My main resolutions, both Personal and Professional are as follows:

- Be mindful of my time, and block off time daily to get admin work done, such as inbox management
- Focus on my health more, ie: walks at lunch time, bring in a healthy lunch at least three days a week, and drink a ton of water
-Think outside of the box and don't be scared to try something new- a big focus on customer communication and webinar topics - Get to know our customer base better, using sites such as the Community to engage and communicate

...I drank a lot of water while typing this, so I am already making my goals happen :)

Shanaee Bodrick Jan '19

It's never to late for a resolution right? My goal is to delve deeper into features that my organization pays for that are under used. With any product or subscription, often people overlook benefits that could be useful to efficiency.

Barb Faasse Jan '19

Great goals, Andrea, and good motivation to make some of my own!

Alex Russell Jan '19

My 2019 professional goal is to just keep developing and finding new ways to improve processes I already do. Looking forward to our down time in the summer to start taking trainings again!

Chris Whisenhunt Jan '19

What a great list! I need to put together similar for my clients. Thanks for the push!

Crystal Chouinard Jan '19

I love your list of suggestions! For 2019 I plan on focusing on, drum role please :) Procedures, Policies, Instructions, Oh My!

Good luck to all of you! Hopefully this time next year I will be able to say that I accomplished my goal or at least most of it.......some of it......fingers crossed!

Kenny Browder Jan '19

So many great things to unpack here Andrea Parker‍ In 2019, I commit to to evolve my knowledge of Blackbaud products by getting certified in a product that scares me (looking at you FENXT). I also want to help those close to me (professionally & personally) fulfill their personal goals. I need to make that commitment to bringing my lunch in 2019 too. I could be creating a surplus of cash to spend on sneakers.

Shelly Gammieri Jan '19

You're amazing. Bringing lunch to work every day is seriously impressive! My one goal this year (in the fundraising world) is to be a CFRE. I'm taking the test next week for the first time, so wish me luck! Thank you for posting and Happy New Year!!

Brandi Steward Jan '19

Get those reports done, finish that training, make those updates-- great ideas Andrea Parker‍!
My 2019 professional goal is to be more proactive with scheduling time. For example, I am working on blocking off weekly time for personal and professional development, product education, and specific times each day when I will (and won't!) be checking email. I believe focusing on proactive (instead of reactive) scheduling will allow me to better prioritize assignments and provide me greater personal bandwidth.
Happy New Year all!