Once you've completed your tasks and have a clear idea of what awaits you after the New Year, you can relax and enjoy the holiday season. Additionally, you'll be able to ease back into work after the holidays without stress or rush. This article explains how you can prepare yourself and your employees for the new work year!

Closing the work year effectively

The saying goes: "Well begun is half done." That's absolutely true, but wrapping up projects properly is just as important as making new plans for 2024. If you still have a laundry list of tasks open as you head into the holiday season, all those to-dos might keep swirling around in your head during the vacation. Not exactly relaxing. That's why it's especially important to make good plans during the busy December months. This applies to employees, but also to employers. As an employer, providing clear guidance to your employees through a clear plan is crucial. This way, everyone knows what needs to be done by the end of the year, but also what's important for the new year. What are the plans for the upcoming year? What goals are being set? What projects are being prepared or launched? And who needs to do what for that? These matters can be explained in a presentation at the end of the year, allowing room for reflection as well as looking ahead.

Wrapping up the year and starting fresh

You can also take some steps yourself to wrap up the year in an organized manner. For example:

1. Clean up your inbox;
2. Note your achievements;
3. Formulate your own goals;
4. Strengthen your network.

Clean up your inbox
No one likes to see a full mailbox on the first day back at work after the holidays. To prevent being overwhelmed by emails after the holidays, clean up your mailbox. Deal with unanswered emails, but also review your subscriptions and be critical. Which subscriptions have truly helped you in your field of work and which ones can be canceled? Result: no one is waiting for your response anymore, and your mailbox won't get filled up while you're away. That brings peace of mind!

Note your achievements & update your CV and LinkedIn
The end of the year is a good time to reflect on what you've accomplished. Everyone knows that negative moments weigh heavier than the positive ones. Therefore, it's important to acknowledge what has gone well in the past year. Use concrete achievements to update your CV and LinkedIn profile. It always feels good to have that done!

Formulate your goals for 2024
Any resolutions for the new work year? Decide now what you want to achieve in 2024. With your colleagues, you can already make plans for new projects. This way, everyone knows what is expected of them in the new year. You can also make a plan or list of goals for yourself. For example, do you want to take a training course or further education? Then, find out how much time this will take and what you'll need for it. If you find it difficult to specify your goals, use the well-known SMART model.

SMART stands for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

You might remember SMART from your school days, but this methodology is also perfect for personal goals or career development. Think about it: why do so many people fail to stick to the resolution of "exercising more"? Because it's not concrete enough!

Ask yourself the following five W-questions to specify your goal:

1. What do I want to achieve?
2. Who is involved in this?
3. Where will I do this?
4. When will I do this?
5. Why do I want to achieve this?

Then, make your goal measurable. How much do you need to do to achieve your goal, how will you measure this, and what is the end result? The next step is to see if your goal is acceptable, for yourself and others involved. Then, it's important to check if your goal is realistic. If your goal is too difficult, you'll quickly lose motivation and won't achieve your goal. Last but not least: make your goal time-bound. A start and end date are ideal for this. Did you know that in vPlan, you can assign start and end dates to all your projects? This way, you can easily monitor progress. After SMART-setting your goals, you can start your new year in an organized way!

Strengthen your network
You can use your LinkedIn network for personal purposes as well as professional ones. It's always handy to have a broad network. Have you completed your tasks for 2023? Use this time to expand your network. Consider your goals for the coming year. Who knows what it might bring in 2024!

A good start in 2024

And then it's 2024. After a delightful holiday filled with cozy dinners, Christmas presents, oliebollen, and fireworks, it's time to give your colleagues three kisses and get back to work. But how do you really start the new work year optimally? You ended the previous year wonderfully, and plans for the new year are already in place. However, the first week of January is not the best time to start with a flood of information. A calm start is key. How do you achieve that then? As we just mentioned: don't overwhelm your colleagues with tasks in the first week. Keep in mind that everyone needs some time to get everything in order. Moreover, bombarding someone with questions is anything but efficient. Stick to the essentials so that all your colleagues/employees can start smoothly.

Inform and update the right colleagues
Do you work a lot with projects? Even if colleagues were absent, there may still have been developments on project-related matters. What is very helpful in such cases is to update the involved colleagues about the project. However, not everyone in the company needs to hear these updates.So: email or brief the right colleague or department involved, but leave out the rest. This way, you prevent your colleagues (or yourself) from having to deal with a pile of emails that they actually have nothing to do with. This contributes to an efficient start of the first workweek of the year. And so, the involved colleagues immediately know which specific tasks need to be done in the coming week.Or even better: avoid chaos by making a weekly plan before the end of the year. If unexpected events occur, you can always add them later. Saves chaos!

Involve your colleagues in the new planning

The new year is a perfect time to sharpen goals or perhaps adopt an entirely new strategy. Whatever your plan is, involve your colleagues. This goes beyond telling them what you're going to do; tell them why.This way, you involve your colleagues in the company or department. They understand better what the purpose of their work is and what to expect. Who doesn't like clarity?Explain why certain choices were made and what the impact is on the employee. This will make them more motivated to go along with changes. Before you know it, all potential changes will be adopted, and the company will run smoothly.In short: for yourself, you can start the year well by having your affairs in order. By making plans and having an overview. By being clear about what you want to achieve. And especially by starting quietly. As an employer, you can create connection by involving your employees in the changes within the company. This way, they feel involved and appreciated and will experience more energy to face new challenges together.

Successfully executing the plan

The plan is set, and you are all set for the new year. Now, you just have to execute the plan. How do you get a visual overview and insight into all actions? And more importantly: how do you get your colleagues on board with this plan? You've probably guessed it: vPlan can help you with this very well. Create your 2024 plan in our planning tool and know exactly what needs to be done. Get all deadlines mapped out for the upcoming year and have them carried out by the right people. With visual overview of all tasks and available capacity, you can easily create a realistic plan. There are many more possibilities within vPlan. One thing is for sure: the new work year will be a lot easier with the help of our tool. For example, the app can automate countless actions for you and remind you of all important tasks and deadlines. Nothing will escape you anymore! Curious how vPlan can optimize your planning? We would love to tell you. Feel free to contact us for that, send a chat message, or create a test environment right away.

Optimizing vPlan for 2024

Are you already using vPlan and have your planning completely organized? Even then, we may still have some useful tips for you:

• Check out the latest automations and set them up to save even more time;
•  Ensure everyone is on the same page and use the new shared views feature;
•  Master all the shortcuts in vPlan to work faster. Check them out here;
•  Book a useful training session to receive tailored advice and tips for the best experience.

With these tips, you'll wrap up the year nicely and be completely ready for 2024!