A new year often makes people want to think about the past, set goals, and make sure their actions match their goals. But study shows that most resolutions fail without a plan and someone to keep you accountable. Simple habits like reviewing past successes, clarifying goals, or auditing recurring tasks can make a big difference in focus, efficiency, and confidence. Psychologists stress the importance of setting goals together. They say that visible plans and group talks make people more interested and more likely to follow through. In the same way, families and teams can benefit from rituals that mix reflection and activity. Small changes, such as mapping workflows or documenting processes, can lower stress and make more room for imagination. This article looks at practical ways that people and organisations can use the New Year as a launchpad to turn their goals into actionable, measurable practices that improve both performance and well-being.

Audit Phone Plans with Family Each January

I have a habit I do every January with my family. We sit down and go over our phone bills and plans together. I learned this trick working at Cellphones.ca, and it saves a lot of headaches. It forces you to think about what you actually need, not just what you want. Over time you notice less stress and smarter choices, especially as tech gets more complicated.

Branden Shortt, Founder & Consumer Advocate, Cellphones.ca

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Set January Goals and Weekly Check-Ins

In our business, the whole year runs smoother if we get our goals straight in January. We meet up every week, especially during the home-buying season, so nothing gets missed. Honestly, just that one extra meeting makes everything run so much better. It stops all those small issues from becoming big problems later on.

Brandi Simon, Owner, TX Home Buying Pros

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Kick Off with a Team Poster Week

We started a New Year’s tradition: a “poster week.” Everyone brought in a favorite poster-one person had a 60s jazz concert flyer, another a Bauhaus design. Suddenly, people on our team who don’t usually talk much were riffing off each other’s ideas. That good vibe lasted for months. I’d definitely recommend trying something simple and fun to kick off the year.

Simon Moore, Founder/CEO, Famous Movie Posters

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Start the Year with Purposeful Alignment

One of the New Year activities that can be beneficial both for families as well as companies in terms of establishing a strong foundation will be the process of alignment as the year begins. This will include understanding directions before day-to-day activities begin.

Whether it’s a discussion with your family regarding what’s most important for the coming year, or it’s a professional context where goals and values are shared, everything works better with alignment. This is because, when there is a reason for every decision, it is much easier to stay focused during the whole year.

Andrew Phelps, Owner, San Diego Service Group

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Narrow Priorities and Assign Clear Owners

One regular practice that upholds a strong foundation for business is disciplined focus with ownership. Many companies start the new calendar year with long laundry lists of objectives and vague ownership. The teams that most successfully align throughout the year narrow their lists down to a few priorities that matter, articulate success in easily measurable terms, and identify a clear owner for each priority. They also acknowledge what will not get done—this saves time and energy. This type of aligned focus leads to less pushback, quicker decision making, and a cohesive team approach that stands strong when adversity strikes later in the year.

Rubens Basso, Chief Technology Officer, FieldRoutes

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Hold Open Idea Sessions for Team Unity

Every year when we kick things off, we try to get more creative with how we handle projects at Magic Hour. We schedule open brainstorming sessions and you never know what kind of ideas will pop up. It helps everyone feel like they’re part of things. Even when we don’t land on a breakthrough, that feeling of working together makes the crazy busy months later on feel a lot easier.

Runbo Li, CEO, Magic Hour

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Share Osechi and Set Hopes Together

This year, our family started with osechi, the traditional Japanese New Year foods. We pick out dishes together, like black beans for health, and talk about what we want the year to bring for our home and for Japantastic. It’s not a magic fix, but that shared meal gives us a moment to pause. That feeling of connection sticks with us when we start new projects and talk to customers.

Falah Putras, Owner, Japantastic

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Kill Last Year’s Energy Drains First

Stop making a list of new things to start and start making a list of things you will finally stop doing. Most people and companies enter January by piling on new goals without clearing out the old junk. At Omni we find that the best way to move fast is to look at what drained our energy last year and kill it.

Mateusz Mucha, Founder, CEO, Omni Calculator

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Run a Cross-Department Improvement Challenge

Last January at PlayAbly, we had each department suggest one improvement to our platform. We turned it into a little competition and they loved it. Three of those suggestions actually became our quarterly goals. After that, people from different teams started talking more and our product roadmap shifted based on the new feedback. It’s a great way to start the year, and the ideas you get are just better.

John Cheng, CEO, PlayAbly.AI

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Make Bilingual Communication a Nonnegotiable

Every year we do one thing: we insist on bilingual communication. In our Los Angeles office, providing Spanish translations upfront has stopped complex immigration cases from going wrong. This prevents costly delays and lets clients know they’re understood. For any business serving diverse communities, this might be the simplest, most impactful change you make this year.

Ramiro Lluis, Managing Attorney, Lluis Law

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Document Processes and Cut New-Hire Ramp

At Truly Tough Contractors, the best thing we did last year was write down our processes. Getting new hires up to speed took about half the time. It wasn’t an instant fix, but once everyone started using the same documents, the confusion between teams just disappeared. My advice is simple: document your key processes early. It makes any improvements you want later way less stressful.

Joseph Melara, Chief Operating Officer, Truly Tough Contractors

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Reserve January 1 for Family Reflection

For me, it’s finding the time to be together and do something as a family. We all have different habits but every year, for January 1, we get together and spend the day, reflecting on the best things that happened in the year before. We talk, go through photos and videos and just enjoy the laughs. It’s become family tradition and we haven’t skipped it in over a decade. I’ve postponed trips quite a few times just to spend the day with the family.

Daniel Kroytor, CEO, TailoredPay

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Ask Team and Customers for Pain Points

Each January, I ask my team and our customers what’s bugging them. One year, a technician’s idea about service routes saved us a ton of time, and we stuck with it all year. It’s not some fancy business strategy. It’s just how we figure out how to get better. Honestly, it’s the most useful thing I do all year.

Lara Woodham, Director, Rowlen Boiler Services

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Write Shared Goals on a Whiteboard

Here’s one thing we try to do at the start of the year: get everyone in a room and write our goals on a whiteboard. We did this last January, and it got the team aligned. When problems popped up later, we all had that shared reference point. Make these planning sessions open to everyone. Your crew has better ideas than you think.

Allen Kou, Owner and Operator, Zinfandel Grille

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Cut Redundant Tools with a January Audit

Doing a tech audit at the start of the year makes a real difference. When I first tried this at TheInformr, we found we were paying for two different tools that did the exact same thing. Getting rid of one saved us money and stopped the constant debate about which one to use. I’d make it a regular habit if I were you. It just keeps everyone focused on the work, not the tools.

Branden Shortt, Founder & Product Advisor, The Informr

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Map Workflows and Eliminate Time Wasters

Look, if you work with automation, start the year by looking at your workflows. We did this last January, mapping out every repetitive task for our clients, and immediately saw where we were wasting time. Now we hit fewer snags and can actually see our progress from last year. Just start by writing down what slows you down. It gives you a real to-do list instead of another empty promise to do better.

Ralph Pieczonka, Director, Simple Is Good Inc

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