What worked this year? What didn’t work? These two questions provide a framework that will improve your performance in the coming year.

Do you have a plan for setting and achieving goals in next year? A personal review of your past year will uncover winning strategies that deserve to be carried forward into the coming year—and those that can be left behind. Conduct an annual review of your performance at work with the following techniques.

Write It Down

Record your observations as you conduct your annual review so you’ll have something to refer back to later. A simple Excel worksheet allows you to organize the past year’s wins and losses month by month. Or, if you prefer to write by hand, Moleskine notebooks are well-made—and can work with Livescribe smartpens to translate your notes into digital content.

Look For Significant Events

Be cautious with granularity. Looking too closely at the past year can cause more issues than it will solve, distracting you from the larger picture. Stay focused on identifying significant events and strategies that impacted your performance.

Create Specific Goals

When planning for next year, create specific goals. Don’t just say you want to make more money or “get better at” something. What will you actually do to make more money? What does “getting better” at something look like? You need to be able to measure your progress toward these goals in a concrete way.

Make a plan and follow up on each step. Use the following categories to establish specific goals for the New Year.

• Attitude – Find a way to cultivate a positive attitude by listening to music that makes you smile, studying meditation, or engaging in other positive activities.

• Career – Review your job description for important keywords and phrases, and find opportunities at work that engage those skills and your expertise.

• Creative – Take a class in something new to challenge your mind. Study a new language or learn to dance. Energize and activate your mind.

• Education – Build a business book list for the coming year and form a reading group at work. Learning together is powerful.

• Family and Friends – Schedule time with family and friends and follow through with your dates. You’ll be energized when you get back to work.

• Health and Fitness – Eat healthy foods, exercise regularly, drink lots of water, and get plenty of rest.

• Volunteering – Find opportunities to volunteer at work. For example, Cydcor employees recently sponsored a food drive for a local charity. They also support Cydcor Operation Smile and regularly participate in doing good works. Find a way to help in your company too.

Did you achieve your goals during this year, or did you fall short of your expectations? Have you conducted an annual review and planned for the new year? Comment here, tell your story on Twitter, and follow us @Cydcor. Share this article with your friends and start a conversation with your community. #cydcorlearnandgrow

We are Cydcor, the recognized leader in outsourced sales services. From our humble beginnings as an independent sales company based in Canada, to garnering a reputation as the global leader in outsourced sales, Cydcor has come a long way. We’ve done this by having exceptional sales professionals and providing our clients with proven sales and marketing strategies that get results.