Personal & Professional Resolutions for 2018

Happy New Year! This year on social media, I’ve seen a big shift from making resolutions to setting goals for 2018. The trend inspired me to write a blog post about embracing resolutions and making them work for you.

Resolutions can be intimidating, but are actually much easier to achieve than goals! Goals are typically set on a grander scale, leaving tons of room for disappointment when December comes around. Resolutions have a higher chance of success because they are simply a small change to your daily, weekly, or monthly activity.

Each year I set a teaching resolution and a personal resolution. Below, you will find what I chose for this year, along with a list if you need some inspiration!

Skirt ($18 once it’s in your cart!!) · Top (also on sale!) · Shoes

My personal resolution for 2018 is to not eat in the car. Other personal resolutions that I’ve kept are not going to the tanning bed (haven’t since 2014!), no caffeine (I’m slowly introducing coffee back into my life), and no phone out while eating.

My teaching resolution is to change our classroom calendar on the first school day of every month. I’ve been seriously slacking now that I no longer teach a grade that does “calendar time”. I set an event in my iCal on the first school day of each month so I don’t forget! It sets an alarm on my phone 15 minutes before. If you use Chrome, the extension Momentum helps you feel so accomplished and focused on your daily goals!

Here are lists of teaching & personal resolutions that are easy to keep and lead to some positive change for the upcoming year ahead!

Personal Resolution Ideas

• Download the app Mint and pick one area to budget. Stick to it each month for a year.
• Unsubscribe from 10 email lists on the last day of each month.
• Don’t go to bed with any dirty dishes in the sink.
• Use a Swell instead of wasting money and plastic on disposable water bottles.
• Don’t let your gas tank get more empty than 1/4 of a tank.
• Send one hand-written card a month to a friend you haven’t seen in a while.
• Unfollow 1 person on social media per month that you constantly compare yourself to.
• Make a list when you go grocery shopping and only buy those items.
• Limit your Amazon orders to 3 a month.
• Put away laundry the day you do it.

Teaching Resolution Ideas

• Clean your board at the end of each week with a
• Replace used sub plans on the first day you return to work from an illness or personal day
• Change your calendar on the first school day of the month
• No coming early & staying after on the same day. On days you arrive early, leave on time. On days you know you’ll be staying after, arrive when the bell rings.
• Pick a day of the week. On this day, do not bring any work home or check e-mails once you get home!
• Use a thermos instead of using disposable coffee cups/ making a daily coffee stop
• Bring your lunch to work instead of going out on your prep.
• Make 1 positive phone call home a week.
• No work e-mailing from your phone. (I swear by this for work/life balance!)
• Lay out your work clothes the night before.
• Recycle the cans you drink at work (mine stay in a bin under the sink until it’s full!

PS- I love how this outfit goes from “single & ready to mingle” to “trust me with your children” in 0.5 seconds. I got this skirt 70% off the sale price at Loft & it hits the knee when you wear flats!

I hope you all are having a great start to 2018 so far! If you have a resolution this year, tell me about it in the comments section- I love hearing what everyone is up to!