The start of a new year is the perfect time to make some much-needed changes to improve the quality of your work life. We reached out to Lindsey Pollak, productivity expert for the Hyatt Place Seamless Travel Series, for her suggestions for practical New Year’s resolutions that will make a small but significant impact on your day-to-day life. Wake up earlier:Your mornings set the tone of your day, says Pollak, who regularly writes pieces on productivity and business travel for Hyatt Place. Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to rush out of your house each morning and instead had some time to think? “It’s so hard to do, I know,” admits Pollak, “but waking up earlier makes a big difference. Don’t try to be too drastic right away — you can’t set your alarm two hours earlier and expect it to work. For the first week, set your alarm15 minutes earlier,and then the next weekset it 15 minutes earlierthan that.” Pollak also suggests creating early morning moments that you’ll be eager to wake up for to make things easier.“Maybe there’s an early morning SoulCycle class that you’ve always wanted to try or you want some time to write your novel or learn a new skill. It’s time for you to be alone,” she says. Learn the art ofdelegating: “Delegating is the practice of working through other people,” Pollak explains. “It’s not dumping your work on others to do; it’s knowing that you don’t have to do everything yourself.” In addition to trading tasks with your co-workers (perhaps you can copy-edit for a colleague while he or she helps you with something else), you can also delegate tasks to programs like a virtual assistant app to help keep your day on track. Say “no” more often: “Learning how to say no is probably the biggest lesson I’ve learned in my career,” says Pollak. “I think we feel that when we say no, we are letting the person down. But if you say yes to too many things, you are saying no to doing those things well.” Follow Lakshmi Gandhi on Twitter @LakshmiGandhi.
Three ways to ease your workday
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