As everyone who believes in the modern calendar already knows, it’s nearly 2014.  Thus we are hitting that critical point in which everyone is nostalgically reflecting on the past year; some with great fondness and others with a sense of relief that it’s almost over.  It’s also the time of year when people are scrambling to make plans on how they ought to enter the new year in style.  For some that means popping champagne at a swanky club… for others it means ordering Chinese food and watching the ball drop in their pajamas.

However you choose to perceive the impending new year, there is a good chance you may be thinking about setting a New Year’s resolution– or just some basic goals for yourself or for your organization.  The whole resolution thing is an endeavor I take on each year and pretty much always fail at upkeeping.  So that you might benefit from my mistakes, here are five things to keep in mind when setting a resolution (to ensure it doesn’t suck).

1. Choose  a Goal You Care About

This may sound silly, but with all the media about losing weight or achieving higher salaries, it’s all too easy to focus on a goal that frankly, you don’t give a damn about.  The same might go for your organization.  Maybe everyone has been telling you that you should focus on marketing through Pinterest more.  But if you really don’t care about Pinterest than it’s doubtful you’re going to put a lot of effort into that goal after a week or two.  Spend some time thinking about what matters most to you on a personal level.

2. Don’t Rely on Others

Don’t set a goal that requires other people to be on board.  If you are setting a goal for your nonprofit, choose something that you can personally take the lead on throughout 2014.  It’s sort of the same thing as relying on a gym buddy when working out… it’s all to easy to say “well, he didn’t go today so I won’t go either”.

3. Set Measurable Goals

This is where I really mess up every year.  I create a goal like “be healthier” or “find more nonprofit clients to work with” but it’s too general.  What does “healthy” mean for me?  How many new clients should I be seeking, one or 1,000?  Once I define the goal I create a better sense of accountability.  For example, “I will run a half marathon by November 2014” or “I will attend one nonprofit networking event a month to seek new clients to work with”.  The more specific you can get, the better.

4. Create a Game Plan

As with any sort of planning, a resolution is ineffectual if you don’t have a “game plan” for the long term.  Say your resolution is that you will attend more networking events.  How will you find these events? How will you record your attendance of these events?

A really great idea I heard recently is to create some sort of resolution journal where you record your progress in achieving your resolution.  With modern technology this journal might not be a diary you tuck under your pillow; maybe you can use your organization’s blog to report your observations from attending these networking events.  Facebook’s timeline is another cool way to track your progress and let others know about it.

5. Let the World Know

Let as many people know about your goal as possible.  If it’s a personal goal, tell friends, family, coworkers and just about anybody else who might force you to feel compelled to keep on track.  If it’s a professional goal, announce it to everyone in your organization and possibly your fans/followers/clients as well.  The more people who know about your goals, the more you’ll feel pressured to accomplish them.

It’s actually a pretty funny story. I had a really long day working from home yesterday so I figured that I would begin to hand write my first draft of this article while sitting at a local chain restaurant making a “To-Do” list of everything I put off for the last couple of weeks.

Top of the List: This Article.

Which brings me right to my first point:

1. Don’t get to this point that I’m at. Always create a “To-Do” list that is workable. I confess to adding mindless random tasks to my list just to have something to cross off.

So take this advice from a professional procrastinator, one who has paid the penalty of waiting until the last minute many, many times. Like right now while I should be shopping at Target not sipping on this beer scribbling this draft on a notepad at the bar.

Back to working from home.

2. Wake up and immediately take a shower. You know, take care of the regular hygiene and maintenance that you would to rent your personal space at the office all day. It’s not a good look when your kids return home from their school day to find you still not dressed. Really.

3. Stop Eating. Being at home all day gives you free reign of the kitchen. Yes, even my son’s fruit snacks are fair game.

Let me fill you in on a little something I read not that long ago to be sure no one is feeling guilty here. I don’t want to have to deal with the rules of grammar and quote this specific author whose name I have forgotten, but she was writing about the same topic of working from home. She explained, (and don’t quote me quoting her because that would not be citable) that she had to tell herself at noon to put down the wine and put on some pants. I probably started mentally writing this article ever since.

4. If you work on Facebook, stay off your personal account. This is such a hard one for me. I mean, it’s nice to create a mindless silly Bitstrip comic mocking the hard work I’m not doing while I switch from one Facebook admin role to my personal account. Refer to our blog on “Five worst things I wish I didn’t post on Facebook” for examples of what not to post if you take a Facebook detour.

5. Put down the laptop. Seriously. When you are feeling guilty for not having as much of a productive day than you would behind your desk, and you find yourself sitting behind the bar and writing a blog for tomorrow’s deadline, it’s probably a good sign that you should know when to quit.  Plan a time similar to the time you would pack up to head out of the office to end your domestic work day there.

6. Switch it up.  Take a bit of “me time” to walk outside and embrace your day at home- or get started on that pile of laundry.

7.  Stay Home. Don’t plan a supermarket stop in the middle of your day or schedule the dentist appointment you put off for the last month. Take it from me, the day will quickly slip away.

Go ahead, learn from my mistakes. But keep in mind that we are all different. Maybe you will like shopping for groceries in your pajamas and stopping to check your cell for email alerts during your day away from the office…working from home.

Just be you. Because let’s face it, “There is no one alive who is Youer than You!” – Dr. Seuss

Overall, the advent of social media has been a positive experience, especially when it comes to Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg’s genius, innovative, website has allowed us to connect with families and old friends who would’ve otherwise been neglected, market ourselves in never-before-seen ways, and divert our attention from work, school, and other important duties (thanks, Zuckerberg).

However, there are some aspects of Facebook that would irritate even the Winklevoss twins: seemingly never-ending game requests, “Friends” who cannot stop updating the world on their lives, email notifications that never cease to end, etc. It’s okay though, just make like Bob Marley and “don’t worry about a thing”,  because we got you covered on how to make your Facebook experience less annoying.

1. Peace and Quiet

Facebook is unique in that it makes a sound once you’ve received a notification, one which most of you are familiar. That sound can get annoying though, especially if you’re receiving notifications faster than Jacoby Ellsbury can steal a base. Yeah, you can mute your volume, but how about just eliminating the sound all together? Under the Facebook’s “Account Settings”, you can disable the sound with one click of a button. Just go to “Notifications” and then click “On Facebook” then click on the box adjacent to “Play a sound when each new notification is received.”  It’s so easy, your grandmother can do it. Grandmother would probably enjoy her quiet since — let’s be honest — she’s probably on Facebook too.

2. Thwarting Unwanted Opinions

Everybody has that friends on Facebook who wants to insert his or her opinion on every topic, but what if you don’t want said friend to yap it up on one of your statuses? There’s a way to avoid such an occurrence. Prior to posting the status, simply click on the drop-down menu labeled “Friends” then go to “Custom” and under “Don’t share this with” insert the name (or names) of the people you don’t want seeing a particular status or post.

You can even block a whole segment of your friends from seeing a status. Don’t want family members seeing a status from last night out on the town? Type in “Family” and you won’t have to answer any questions about what you did that night (sorry, Mom).

3. Don’t Worry, We’re Still Friends

Say your friend from scenario two not only loves to toss his or her opinions around the virtual world, but he or she loves to constantly post statuses updating the world on the important things of life, like — you know — taking a showing, going to the gym, doing homework, reading a book, and going to bed. You can filter updates so most are displayed or just the important ones show up in your news feed. Better yet, you can even eliminate any updates from showing up on your news feed.

Once on the friend’s Facebook page, click on the drop-down titled “Friends.”  In order to completely remove the annoyance out of your life, click “Show in News Feed.” This avoids any potential drama of removing somebody from your friends list. Think of it as if your Ron Wesley and your friend is Harry Potter in the invisibility cloak. Your still friends, but you’ll never have to see him.

If you’d rather not have a person completely removed from your Facebook world, manage the updates settings to your liking by selecting “Settings” under “Show in News Feed.”

4. Stop the Emails

If you registered for Facebook with an authentic and your everyday email address, then first, shame on you. Second, you can easily prevent emails from constantly swarming your inbox. Under “Account Settings” go to “Notifications” and then click “Email.” You can, again, filter the emails to your liking. You can always mark Facebook as spam as well. The latter completely hinders Facebook from ever letting you in on what’s going on with your friends.

5. This Isn’t an Arcade

Facebook as evolved into a gaming platform, but most users  (if not all) would rather stay away from the Candy Crushers of the world. There are two ways you can block that distant cousin from sending you game requests.  You can click the “X” on the notification to disable future requests from said game, or you can manually enter any game under the “Blocking” settings under your “Account Settings.”

Twitter has evolved into one of the top social media sites for businesses. It started as an unknown website with questionable features, but now it’s as popular, if not more, than the relatively easy-to-use Facebook. It’s an effective tool for businesses, but social media sites are only as effective as their users, so here are some tips to take full advantage of Twitter for your business.

 5. Lay down the groundwork

Before you even think about sending out your first tweet, you’re profile should be completed. This means presenting your brand (or yourself) by taking advantage of the two different images you can use to represent your account – the profile picture and background photo – and three important profile features: location, website and biography.

It also helps if you understand the basics of Twitter (retweets, favorites, direct messages, reply, and mentions).

4. Be active

It’s recommended that you tweet at least once a day, with a max of five. Being too active can tune out followers (unless you’re job entails it) and creates an annoying image to your company. Not being active at all, though, will have the same effect. Try tweeting a couple of times per day and see how your audience react, then adjust accordingly.

3. Keep Tweets short and sweet… and smart

Tweets are limited to 140 characters, a pretty well-known aspect of Twitter even for those Facebook-loving, anti-Twitter people, thus they’re easily consumable by readers. However, a study done by Buddy Media says tweets containing less than 100 characters are 17% more engaging than longer tweets.

It’s not all about length, though. The quality of your tweets will aid in the growth of your Twitter following. You’ll need to find out how word resonating tweets within the 140 character limited, which usually entails possessing a strong vocabulary.

2. Use hashtags

Facebook has recently implemented hashtags in its programming, but hashtags became common practice through Twitter. Hashtags allow users to see what’s trending and to cater their tweets around those trends. This allows businesses to see what’s going on in order to stay trendy with their tweets and expand their audience.

1. Engage with followers

Twitter is unique in that businesses can interact directly with customers. Several companies asks their followers for feedback on products, troubleshoot any issues they may have, or just general conversation. It’s one of the top features of Twitter for business, and you can certainly take advantage of it.