I do not believe in new year resolutions. Yes, it is an illusion to think that the switching of a digit from 2024 to 2025 will deliver a new outcome, when you have not investigated, and resolved, to fix and deepen what matters: processes. One of the greatest victories in life is the victory over time, and that time is allocated to all of us equally (24 hours in a day). Time, even in its limitless form, is the most scarce resource out there. Until you can win over it, via your processes, you cannot resolve your professional future.
Yes, think about it: the translation of ideas into products and services, upon which all of us are mobilized as factors of production, are underpinned by people, tools and processes. The processes are linked to outcomes, and time, inclusively picking that productivity element in firms!
So, leave new year resolutions, focus on resolving your daily and weekly non-optimal processes. Buy an exercise book. Every Sunday night, take 10 minutes to list important things you want to get done in that week. Then every night before you go to bed, or if you prefer, early in the morning, list important tasks for the day.
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
As the days go and the week passes, cross-out the completed ones. Keep optimizing those processes, keep improving on how you execute the tasks, and track these two indicators: quality and speed. Those cover two things you need to become successful – improving work outcomes at the best productivity level possible.
In most things in the professional domain, those who can deliver high quality outcomes at the shortest time thrive. So, you must keep improving your processes while reducing the time required to execute tasks.
If you blog, how can you take 30 minutes to put that content over 2 hours without loss of quality? If you send a management report, how can you beat the deadline with high quality results, and demonstrate that you are ready for more responsibilities? Those simple resolutions will make the mountain-size new year resolutions irrelevant.
Happy new year ahead!
---
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Feb 10 - May 3, 2025), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here.
It is a capacity problem. When you possess immense capabilities, you will not notice the difference between December 31st and January 1st. But when you can barely get a thing done, you will need some distractions like new year resolutions, to give you some semblance of being active and busy. At the end of the day, the achievers will achieve, and the resolutions makers will keep piling them up. Be productive or keep wasting away.