The New Year is the perfect time to set career goals. Yet many people fail in their new years resolutions for several reasons according to Psychology Today:

• People set them as a way to motivate themselves, but just aren’t ready to change their bad habits
• False hope syndrome describes where a person sets a goal which is too unrealistic and they don’t really believe they can achieve it in the first place
• Many people set goals such as losing weight or saving money and expect their lives to be completely changed. “When it doesn’t, they get discouraged and revert back to old behaviours.”

 

The key to sticking to your resolutions comes in two parts:

1. You need to turn your resolutions into new habits by reinforcing new thinking patterns. This turns your desired actions into automatic actions when you’re faced with a choice or decision.
2. Your goals need to be realistic and specific. It helps to set a big, overarching goal and dividing it up into smaller, more achievable milestones.

 

Apps are very useful in helping you to do both of these things. Not only do apps usually have a very specific function or purpose to help you achieve one goal, but they are very effective in creating new habits, as they send you reminders, track your progress and help you to visualise your rewards.

 

Here are some of our favourite apps for helping you to achieve your career resolutions this new year.

 

Set realistic goals to achieve

Habit Hub – Use Habit Hub to add goals and smaller actions within those goals to break them into manageable chunks. You can then set a schedule and track your progress.

 

Resolution: Get a promotion or a pay rise

GetRaised – This app tells you whether you’re being paid enough based on your job and salary, so you can be armed with the right information when negotiating with your boss.

Inside Jobs – Use this app to narrow down your career trajectory. Based on your goal and where you are now, it figures out the skills, qualifications and experience you need.

 

Resolution: Find a new job

Pocket Resume – A handy tool for updating your CV quickly and on-the-go so you can apply for multiple different jobs at a moments notice.

Visualize me – This clever app scans your LinkedIn profile and creates eye-catching graphics using information from your career, education, skills and other section. These can then be used to create an impressive-looking CV.

 

Resolution: Network more

Meetup – Meetup is the best app to find interesting industry events and networking events to attend, like panels, socials, book clubs, workshops and more.

 

Resolution: Improve work/life balance

Time Recording – This app lets you record how much time you spend on certain tasks. You can check-in and out of your daily tasks such as email, meetings, (or Facebook) and it creates timesheets in Dropbox or Google Drive so you can see what you’re really wasting your time on.