10 Goals to Make Your Year Better

Set goals, manage your progress with stakeholders along the way, and achieve your goals on time.

June 30, 2022
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How would you describe your job to a five year old?
What season would you be?
What is a weird food you have tried? Would you eat it again?
What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Would you go in the mother-ship with aliens if they landed on Earth tomorrow?
What is your favorite season?
Do prefer working from home or the office?
What is your earliest memory of this job?
What is the best thing you have bought so far this year?
What is the earliest book you remember?
If you had to move to another country, which one would you choose?
You are the best criminal mastermind in the world. What crime would you commit if you knew you would get away with it?
What is your favorite movie genre to watch?
What was the last thing you ate?
What person from history would you add to Mount Rushmore?
What is a weird fact you know?
What is your favorite part of working from home?
Were the Spice Girls a good team?
Imagine you can instantly learn any language. Which would you choose?
If you could live in any state, which state would you pick?
Which fictional team is the best team of all time?
What did you want to be when you grew up?
What do you usually eat for a quick lunch?
What simple food will you never eat?
Show us the weirdest thing you have in the room with you right now.
Would you rather stay at a hotel or an AirBNB?
What is your favorite movie genre to watch?
Are you more productive in the morning or at night?
Who is someone in your community that makes a difference?
Who was your most unique pet?
Choose one famous person from history you want on your team during a zombie apocalypse.
What is a good way to give back to the community?
Which song could you listen to over and over again?
Is Hugh Grant funny?
What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?
Would you want to have an imaginary friend today? Did you have one as a child?
What actor or actress would you want to play you in the movie about your life?
What is the best super power?
What is your New Years resolution?
You can only eat one food again for the rest of your life. What is it?
What is the best work holiday?
What is the first gift you remember receiving?
Would you rather join Metallica or Backstreet Boys?
What is the best example of a community you have seen?
What is an easy way to do something nice for someone?
Show us your phone background and tell the story behind why you picked this image.
What was your first job?
Pick any band to play at your funeral.
If you could have an unlimited supply of one thing for the rest of your life, what would you pick?
Which superpower would you give to your arch enemy?
What is the most obscure superpower you would want?
What emoji best describes how you are feeling right now?
If you could live in any country, which country would you pick?
Would you rather live in a city or a town?
What is your favorite holiday?
What is something you accomplished as part of a team?
What is your standard office lunch?
What is your most used phone app?
What is your favorite season?
Have you ever won something as a team?
Imagine you are a professional baseball player. What is your introduction song?
Beach holiday or ski trip?
Have you ever been to a funny comedy show?
Would you rather live at the North Pole or the South Pole?
What is your favorite song to sing?
If you could live in any state, which state would you pick?
Imagine you could teleport anywhere. Where would you go right now?
What is the most unusual job you have heard of?
What was the last thing you ate?
You can visit any fictional time or place. Which would you pick?
What do your family and friends think you do all day?
What movie do you wish you could watch again for the first time?
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What movie defined your generation?
You are stranded on a remote desert island. Are you alone or with your worst enemy?
What is your favorite knock-knock joke?
Have you ever told someone Santa is not real?
Do you know how to speak more than one language?
On a scale of 1 – 10, how much of a team player are you?
What is your #1 recommendation in this city?
What is your favorite holiday?
What bucket list item do you most want to check off in the next six months?
What is your favorite mythical creature?
What was the first way you made money?
If you could be great at any Olympic sport, which would it be?
Which song could you listen to over and over again?
When did you start liking/hating mushrooms?
Where is your favorite vacation spot?
Do you take your PTO all at one time, or another way?
Which show do you remember most from your childhood?
Which beverage goes best with pizza?
Would you want to have a personal assistant follow you around everywhere and do what you asked of them?
Have you ever met your idol?
What did you want to be when you grew up?
Would you rather live 100 years in the past or 100 years in the future?
What is your hobby?
When you are alone in the car, what volume is the music at?
Imagine you no longer have to work. How would you spend a Tuesday?
What is your favorite type of sandwich?

Every year you are given the opportunity to set goals to become a better person. These goals can help you on your journey towards who you want to be and can help you be a better friend, family member, and employee. Knowing precisely how to set these goals and what goals you should aim to achieve can be challenging.

Rather than set vague goals, you need to understand what you should try to accomplish and have a support system to help along the way and check your progress. Assembly is a human resource solution that can help you set goals, manage your progress with stakeholders along the way, and achieve your goals on time. 

What are the Five Types of Goals?

Goal-setting is a crucial part of employee performance management and your personal life but can be a daunting task without specific guidelines to follow. 

When developing goals for work or your personal life, it is critical to differentiate between a goal and an objective to effectively achieve your ambitions. Goals are a long-term desired outcome, whereas objectives are the steps you take along the way. Breaking down your larger goals into objectives gives you concrete steps to follow to achieve your outcome.

Business leaders and efficiency experts agree that the most effective goals follow the SMART acronym and are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. 

  1. Specific

This first criterion can be thought of as the mission statement of your goal. What do you want to accomplish, and what specific actions will you take to achieve your goal? It should answer the popular “w” questions (who, what, when, where, which, and why) and determine the action verb of your SMART goal, for instance, “oversee” or “plan.” 

  1. Measurable

What metrics will you use to determine if you meet your goal? This is typically a unit of time like one month, a unit of production such as 20 pages, or a comparative measurement like a 15% increase. If you are dealing with a longer-term goal, the measurable criteria encourage you to break down your goal into measurable pieces and set clear milestones along the way to track progress. 

  1. Achievable

This criterion focuses on what you can do to make your goal attainable. To make a goal achievable, you may be required to develop new skills or change your outlook. Focusing on goal achievability can help you set realistic goals and prevents the discouragement that accompanies unattainable goals. 

  1. Relevant

Relevance generally pertains to business goals but can be essential in various situations. This criterion establishes your goal within a broader context to determine its importance. Increasing your cake production rate is a relevant goal if you work in a bakery. If you work at a hospital, your speedy cake-making ability may be interesting, but it is irrelevant to your work. 

  1. Time-Bound

Setting a realistic time frame for your goals will help you achieve them and allow you to keep tabs on your progress along the way. Select your deadline carefully and establish a way to check in with yourself or your employer as you work towards accomplishing it.

A time constraint can create a motivating sense of urgency, but an unrealistic time window will only lead to disappointment. If you’re facing an undesirable but necessary task, a smaller time frame can help you avoid procrastination so you can move on to your more fun, personal goals.  

Why is Setting Goals Important?

Simply put, setting goals provides our lives with purpose and direction. They keep us motivated and on track when we’re feeling distracted and ultimately help us turn our visions for the future into our reality. 

With Assembly’s Goal Defining workflow, creating your personalized SMART goals is easier than ever. Assembly provides a user-friendly way to define and keep track of your goals so you can check back anytime and see how you’re doing. 

Book a demo with Assembly today or try Assembly free. 

10 Constructive Goals to Make Your Year Better

Looking to make a change this year? Explore the following personal and professional development goal examples and use the SMART acronym to make them as specific and accomplishable as possible. 

  1. Improve Your Habits

Starting with broad goal board ideas to improve your habits can help you identify the specific behaviors you would like to address with goal-setting. Take an honest look at your daily routine to find out where you would like to make improvements. Specific problem areas will likely emerge, which can become the foundation for your SMART goal. 

For example, if you’re frustrated with the amount of TV you watch daily, set a time-bound, realistic goal of the number of hours you can watch every day and try it for one week. Ask a friend to join you if you’re worried about accountability with a goal like this.

  1. Read More

If you’d like to make reading part of your daily routine, start by setting a daily or weekly reading goal that you can easily achieve, such as 15 minutes per day or 50 pages per week. You can always increase your goal’s time frame later if it seems appropriate. 

Plan ahead. Set a specific time each day dedicated to building your reading habit, and plan to read in a comfortable, quiet space where you can focus without interruption. To make your goal more social, join a book club. If you’re tight on time, try an audiobook you can listen to while exercising or running errands. 

  1. Be Proactive 

Many people complain about their procrastination tendencies but aren’t sure how to address the problem. If you struggle to start tasks, setting a SMART goal to deal with procrastination can help you buckle down and get to work. 

When faced with a tedious or unpleasant task, a SMART goal such as “I will fill out my time sheet every Friday after work for 10 minutes” can keep the work from piling up. When it comes to proactivity, keeping your goals relevant to either your work or personal values can increase both your short-term and long-term motivation. 

  1. Be Collaborative 

Collaboration, the process of working towards a common goal with others, encourages cooperation and sociability, all of which contribute to overall happiness. This year, set a SMART goal related to collaboration, such as “I will set up a weekly 30-minute meeting to check in with the marketing team.” Collaboration increases workplace efficiency, and you might make some friends in the process. 

  1. Promote Physical and Mental Wellbeing 

Replace dreaded New Year’s exercise plans with fun and realistic dream board ideas to improve your physical and mental health. Implement a weekly, time-bound gym routine or commit to a Saturday morning yoga class. If you’re focused on the mental health side of things, several apps allow you to track your moods or problem behaviors. 

What works for others may not work for you. Make sure your wellness goals will lift you up, not leave you feeling down. 

  1. Learn From Failure 

While you may not believe that failure is a blessing, it may help you to create SMART goals that address areas you come up short. Whereas a goal like “I will not make mistakes” does not meet any of the SMART criteria, a phrasing like “I will take notes during my weekly meeting with my manager and review them before submitting my next assignment” is more effective. 

  1. Practice Gratitude 

Make gratitude a goal this year by starting a gratitude journal and jotting down three things you are grateful for before bed every night. If that isn’t your speed, set an alarm on your phone as a reminder to practice gratitude for a few minutes every day. Meditating on a grateful thought for 5 to 10 minutes daily, for example, on your daily commute or while in the shower, can help you meet your gratitude goals.

  1. Boost Persistence 

To practice persistence, list your weekly, monthly, and yearly goals and cross off each milestone as you reach it. Visually witnessing your accomplishments can motivate you to persevere through the most challenging tasks. 

  1. Manage Stress

Commit to managing your stress this year by setting SMART goals that increase de-stressing activities like exercising and relaxing and decrease unnecessary stressors like procrastination. Set weekly wellness goals that are time-bound and realistic, and make modifications when necessary. 

  1. Practice Self-Care

Self-care means something different to everyone, but common examples include getting enough good-quality sleep and taking time away from social media. To make these goals SMART, commit to a set bedtime for a week and set timers on your phone to take note of your energy level the following day, or deactivate your social media platforms for three days and see how you feel. 

Try Assembly for Goal Setting

Need help with goal setting? Assembly offers flow templates that help you create and stick with your workplace goals. 

Join for free today or book a demo with one of our employee recognition experts. 

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Assembly SOC 2 compliant?

Yes, at Assembly, security is a top priority. Each quarter, we have ongoing security work that is everyone’s responsibility. While we maintain a strong security posture, it was important for us to prove to our customers that we do everything we claim to do. This led us to pursue a SOC 2 Type II report that would provide evidence of our compliance with industry gold-standard security practice.

What's the ROI for employee recognition?

There is study after study showing that employee recognition leads to increased engagement. This in return creates an environment where employees are happier and more motivated which increase productivity and reduces voluntary turnover significantly. In order to filled critical roles, companies tend to spend nearly twice the value of an annual salary. Assembly is an investment in your employees that supports your bottom line.

Does Assembly offer longer-term contracts?

Yes, we will offer contracts for companies with longer-term agreements to help larger customers have more certainty around future costs.

The minimum agreement term is a 12-month subscription.

Does Assembly offer onboarding support?

We do and for FREE! Any new customer needing further support to get started with Assembly to ensure you're set up for success can request custom onboarding support. Improving your employee experience is about much more than just using our amazing software; it’s about transforming your business to create a workplace that people love. That’s much easier to do with the personal support and advice from our passionate people experts.

Is there a free version of Assembly?

Yes. We offer a completely free plan for up to 50 team members. This plan is intended for teams or organizations that are looking to get started with an employee engagement tool. Keep in mind, this plan is limited in features.

All customers can open an Assembly account for free and get started without a credit card. Then you can change plans as necessary.

How much do rewards cost?

At the time of redemption (when your employees exchange their points for a paid reward) you'll pay face value. If a reward is a $10 Amazon gift card, your cost will be $10. All paid rewards are billed for on a monthly basis.

The good news is that you don't have to pay for rewards upfront because we only charge you when points are redeemed, not when they're earned.

Does Assembly offer discounts?

We offer discounts or educational or charitable organizations. In order to secure a discount, you'll first need to book a demo with a customer support specialist.

For all other organizations, we are willing to consider longer-term agreements in exchange for discounts. To set up annual plans or longer, you will need to book a demo with a customer support specialist.

How do I cancel my plan if needed?

If you're on a month to month plan, you can go here and cancel anytime. If you're having concerns or need help setting up your account for success, you can always book a demo with a customer support specialist.

If you're on a longer-term custom plan, you'll need to reach out to your customer support specialist to cancel your account or email us at support@joinassembly.com.

What customizations are available?

Great question! You can customize your core values to match your organization's to boost and track alignment. You can change your currency from the 🏆 emoji (our default) to any emoji of your choice. You can swap our logo for your own. You can also set up company culture rewards such as, "Lunch with the CEO," "Buy a book on us," and so much more!

Who can give or receive recognition?

While we recommend a peer to peer set up where anyone in your organization can give or receive recognition, you can set up Assembly however you want. If you need to limit the people who can give or receive recognition, that's perfectly fine and can be done from your Admin, here.

What integrations are available?

Assembly connects to the tools your employees use every day to offer an easy, seamless experience with minimal change management.  

Assembly has integrations with HCM/HRIS systems like ADP, Google, Office 365, and Slack. We also integrate with communication tools like Slack and Teams so you and your employees can access Assembly wherever they work now.

What's your average adoption rate?

That depends on the company's permissions set up. That said, over 90% of the employees on Assembly's platform are recognized on a monthly basis. That means nearly every employee across all of our customers are receiving regular recognition from their peers, managers, or leadership. We're extremely proud of this.

Must rewards be set up to use Assembly?

They are not required. You can use Assembly without having rewards set up. However, we don't recommend it if you intend to have a high adoption and usage rate. You can always keep the costs down by offering internal culture rewards that are fulfilled by you internally.

Are points required to use Assembly?

No, you can remove allowances from anyone or everyone. It's up to you but we do recommend using points whether they're worth a real dollar value or not. Companies that use points have a much higher engagement rate even if those points don't exchange for real dollars.

Could find the answer you are looking for?

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