Start the New Year Strong with Fresh Habits
The new year is just around the corner – and that means a fresh chance to hit reset on your work routines. As HR professionals, our plates are especially full at the start of the year (think yearly reviews, budgets, training plans, and new hires!). This is the perfect time to introduce a few simple productivity habits that, once in place now, can make the rest of the year run more smoothly. Let’s dive into five friendly, doable hacks that will help you feel organized, energized, and ready for your best HR year yet.
1. Plan, Prioritize, and Break Down Big Projects
Begin by setting clear goals and making a prioritized plan. Each week (or even each day), write a quick to-do list and identify your top 3–5 priorities. This gives you a roadmap for where to focus your energy. HR has so many recurring processes (think: annual reviews, hiring pipelines, policy updates), so also break big projects into bite-sized steps. For example, if you’re preparing for a big recruitment push, chunk it into concrete tasks (like “write the job ad,” “set interview dates,” “notify team of new hire”) that take a few hours each. Experts recommend breaking large tasks into smaller milestones, which keeps you motivated as you tick off each step. Planning like this helps you avoid feeling overwhelmed and ensures that on busy mornings you always know exactly what to tackle first.
2. Block Your Time to Focus
After you’ve set your priorities, schedule them into your calendar. Time blocking is a powerful habit: carve out dedicated chunks of time for specific activities (e.g. one hour for interviews, 30 minutes for paperwork, 1 hour for employee meetings). When you put these blocks on your calendar (ideally at consistent times), you protect them from getting eaten up by emails or random interruptions. One practical tip is to treat these blocks as appointments with yourself – and try your best to stick to them. This approach stops tasks from bleeding into each other and keeps you on track. As one HR time-management guide puts it, using scheduled time blocks for interviews, emails, or performance follow-ups helps you stay organized and prevents distraction. In short: plan when you’ll do things ahead of time, and your calendar becomes your productivity assistant.
3. Minimize Multitasking and Distractions
It might feel like a badge of honor to juggle five things at once, but multitasking is actually a productivity thief. Studies have shown that switching tasks frequently can noticeably slow you down – one report even noted that constant task-switching can drop your effective “IQ” over a single day[. Instead, try to focus on one thing at a time. When you’re in a meeting, really listen. When you’re writing a policy, close the email tab. A quick experiment: set a timer and give yourself a solid 30 minutes of uninterrupted work on one task (no checking Slack or email!). You’ll likely get much more done than with constant context-switching.
Also be militant about cutting out interruptions. On average, people get distracted by coworkers, pings, or notifications every few minutes, and each distraction can cost about 10 minutes of refocusing time. To guard your focus, consider simple moves like closing your office door, silencing your notifications, or using a “do not disturb” sign when you really need heads-down time. Even grouping your communication can help: instead of replying to every email as it arrives, set aside two or three short periods per day to read and answer messages. (This is sometimes called “email batching” – checking mail only a couple of times daily.) This way, you aren’t constantly being pulled out of your main tasks. The payoff is big: working on one task fully at a time will improve your speed and effectiveness.
4. Delegate (and Automate) Where You Can
HR work often involves a mix of tasks, some very strategic and others quite routine. A huge productivity boost comes from delegating repetitive or low-priority tasks to colleagues or automating them with simple systems. For example, maybe you have a teammate who can draft the standard offer letters, or an admin who can help update records. Even creating a shared checklist or template (for onboarding steps, exit interviews, newsletter drafting, etc.) means you never have to start from scratch each time. Delegation frees up your schedule to focus on higher-impact items. In fact, one HR guide emphasizes that handing off non-critical jobs to others lets you “devote more time to strategic projects and higher-level responsibilities”. As you reorganize, identify the tasks that someone else can take on (or that a simple form/template could simplify) and start trusting your team with them. Empowering others not only speeds things up, it helps everyone develop skills and keeps work from bottlenecking on you.
5. Take Smart Breaks and Recharge
It may sound counterintuitive, but short breaks are a secret weapon for long-term productivity. When HR work gets stressful (and it often does), stepping away for a few minutes can actually sharpen your focus. A quick walk, a chat over coffee, or even just standing up for a stretch can reset your brain. Research shows that taking regular mini-breaks helps restore concentration and prevents burnout.. Try the “90/10” rule: for every 60–90 minutes of focused work, take a 10-minute breathing or movement break. You might notice your energy and ideas flow better after these resets.
Along with breaks, remember to safeguard your well-being in other small ways: drink water, eat a healthy snack, or do a 5-minute breathing exercise during the day. As HR, you set the tone for company culture – modeling these habits tells your team it’s okay to pause and recharge when needed. By treating yourself kindly and allowing brief recharges, you’ll maintain high performance all year long.
Cheers to Your Most Productive Year Yet!
Making these five hacks part of your routine doesn’t require fancy apps or dramatic changes – just a bit of planning and mindfulness. As the new year begins, give yourself this gift: the habit of clear planning, focused work blocks, smart delegation, and self-care. Before you know it, these tweaks will become second nature. You’ll find yourself breezing through tasks that used to pile up, feeling more in control and less stressed. Keep it friendly and flexible: start small, pick one hack to try first, and build from there.
With consistent effort, you’re setting yourself up for smoother HR projects and happier employees all year. Go ahead and kick off January with this positive momentum – your future self will thank you for the organized, energized start. Here’s to a year of productivity and success in HR!
Sources: 14 New Year’s Resolutions for Professional & Personal Productivity, Health, Happiness - Jan 2024 - Performance Excellence Network
Maximising Efficiency: 5 Time Management Hacks for Busy HR Managers
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/maximising-efficiency-5-time-management-hacks-busy-hr-managers-jbfve