Are you a working mom looking for New Year Resolution Goals that are REAL and attainable? Then you’ve come to the right place! Check out my favorite New Year’s Resolutions for work at home moms!
Aren’t you tired of New Year’s Resolution posts that say things like “plan ahead”, “start hobbies”, ” drink less alcohol”, and “run a marathon”? Yep, me too.
In fact, I usually don’t like to make New Year’s Resolutions because they are all unrealistic goals – so generic and unattainable.
Instead, I have my FAVORITE New Year’s Goals for working moms that are realistic, attainable, and even enjoyable. Let’s get going!
The Best List of New Year Resolution Goals for Working Moms
I think the key to realistic New Year Resolution Goals is to think about your normal life, and think about what you’ve been able to accomplish in the past.
Are you really goad at taking classes and learning something new? Then lean into that focus on learning in this next year. Are you really good at trying new recipes in the new year? Then focus on 5 new HEALTHY recipes that you can make and practice all year long!
If you have never set foot in a gym, and don’t really like working out, then deciding to “workout every day” isn’t that sustainable.
Here are some easy ways to make realistic New Year Resolution Goals this year that will fill you up and care for you and your mental health.
1. Resolution to Care for Yourself
I think January rolls around and we all decide at once “I’m going to be healthier!”, BUT WE DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO IT.
We don’t know how to make good decisions that are practical for ourselves, and we don’t know how to sustain it throughout the year. I hate to use the term “lifestyle”, but I think we really need to find easy ways to care for ourselves progressively throughout the year. No more just winging it!
Like any new routine, it’s really important to have a long-term plan. Not just a January plan.
So, if your resolution is to care for yourself, may I recommend making a list of 12 new year resolutions FOR YOURSELF that you can keep, and trying one per month?
Make a list of healthy habits like the one below, and pick one bullet point a month for the upcoming year. They can be daily for that month (like drink 1 gallon of water a day) or a single item (like book a massage). Regardless, having a list of resources that you can draw from to care for yourself is really helpful!
- Book a Massage – once a month
- Make a Coffee Date and keep it! – twice a month
- Wake up 30 minutes earlier – daily (my tips here for extra hours of sleep!)
- Journal for 1 minute – daily (my favorite one-line-a-day journal is here)
- Work on one relationship or friendship – twice a month (this podcast changed the way I think about relationships)
- Drink 1 gallon of water – daily (I use this one and love it!)
- Try a new smoothie recipe – weekly
- Go outside by yourself 5 minutes – daily
- Do 10 jumping jacks – daily
- Do something nice for someone else and don’t get caught – twice a month
- Lay on your bed for 5 minutes with the door closed and your eyes closed – daily
- Call someone that needs help – twice a month
- Hide your phone in a drawer and spend time off social media – daily
- Create a shot of Apple Cider Vinegar, Lemon Juice, and Fruit Juice – daily
- Walk up the stairs every time you have the opportunity – weekly
Make your own list and pick one item every month to take care of yourself!
2. Resolution to Improve your Work and Productivity
Are you looking for some good new goals for the workspace? Do you want to give yourself motivation to work faster and better? Ask yourself these questions to see what feels right for you right now:
- “What are the pain-points with my work situation right now?”
- “Is there any work function I need that I can’t accomplish now?”
- “Do I need help with my family patterns and how they intersect with my work goals?”
- “Do I need to find extra time in my day to get things done?”
Every season or so I focus on something new to make my work easier. It might be my schedule, or my earbud/AirPod situation so I can be more efficient in my meetings, or it might just be our family childcare dynamic and how that needs to improve to make my work/home/family situation easier. (If you are looking for resources to make working at home easier, check out this cheat sheet.)
I can’t tell you how to create a workspace goal that works for your family, but I can tell you how I manage our ever-changing schedule, and how I use goal setting to help shape my family work schedule every year.
I use a one-sheet printable digital routine builder as a family/work exercise to see how I spend my time every day. It is the only thing that works for me when it comes to improving my work and productivity.
This scheduling solution coordinates all your work, family events, your meals, your kids activities, and self-care time…and then lets you rest.
WITH THIS SYSTEM YOU CAN…
✅ Keep separate schedules for you, your kids, your home, and your work.
✅ Compare every day of the week to see where you have extra minutes to optimize and use wisely.
✅ Prioritize your top to-do items, and and say “no” to what can be saved for next week.
✅ Add in cleaning chores and kids activities based on how much extra time you have.
Using this planner can be a one-time exercise to help you find extra time in your day. It doesn’t have to be used every day all year!
If you are looking for a single schedule planner to help you identify a bad habit of productivity, and give you family and work inspiration, grab this single scheduler and see if it helps!
3. Resolution to Put Your Family First
We all want more quality time with our family and kids. But it’s much easier to say than do!
May I suggest a simple single activity that you can do every month all year?
Once a month, go in the room that your kids are playing (or your husband/partner is interacting with a child), and turn on your phone to Record Voice Memos. Just stay in that room for awhile (10 minutes? 20 minutes?) and record the playtime and the interactions.
That’s it.
Soak up their voices. Think about their conversations and play time banter. Focus on your husband’s conversation with your kids. And record it for posterity.
Save that recording with the date, and repeat every month.
This simple act of being with your children and remembering everyday daily life, will give you memories for years to come. And is one of those good new year’s resolution ideas that is attainable, reasonable, and will give you quality time with your family.
4. Resolution to Focus on Your Homelife
If your resolution is to focus on your home, I recommend that you use this one general encouragement to yourself:
Let some things be easy.
As moms I think we think that everything has to be hard. (Honestly, when you are in the emergency room waiting room with your child that has crazy pain, everything seems hard.)
But not everything in your HOME has to be hard. Just let some professionals help, and let things be easy. Here are a few ideas to use this year as you focus on your home:
✅ I started using Dinner Daily when we moved and I wanted an easy way to meal plan with my new grocery store’s deals.
Most meal plans don’t take your weekly grocery deals into account, and that frustrates me. With Dinner Daily, you enter your city, preferred grocery store, and diet (vegetarian, all-beef, you like chicken 2/week) and they give you a selection of weekly recipes using on-sale ingredients! All you have to do is pick which recipes you want to use, print off the grocery list, and cook.
I saved SO MUCH TIME and MONEY using this plan. I used it for over 2 years, and it is definitely amazing.
- Price: $18/3 months ($1.50/week) or $48/year ($1/week)
- Unique feature: Uses grocery sales, lets you save and choose recipes
- Effort: Minimal – select recipes, grocery, cook
- Deal: 2 weeks free by clicking here
✅ If you want the Home Chef or Hello Fresh experience, but want it at a fraction of the cost, you have to try EveryPlate. I’ve been using this for over two years, and love it.
It is a dinner delivery plan service, that delivers you the recipes and ingredients for 3-5 recipes a week. It’s JUST like Home Chef and Hello Fresh, but is so much cheaper.
For a regular box of 3 meals for 2 people, I pay $38.93 including shipping. The same plan for Home Chef starts at $49.95 plus delivery. EveryPlate doesn’t have “Oven-Ready” meals, but every single meal I’ve made (and I’ve made over 100!) has been incredibly delicious, easy to make, and under 30-40 minutes. I totally recommend them!
- Price: $38.93 including shipping per week
- Unique feature: Recipes and ingredients included, priced low, variety of meals
- Effort: Low – select recipes and cook
- Deal: $20 off first box makes it $2.49/serving
5. Resolution to Care for Your Marriage
Marriages are hard, and knowing how to care for yourself can be even harder! To know what you and your partner need, ask yourself these questions:
- “What individual seasons are my husband and I in?”
- “Do we need more space, time, or help to operate well together?”
- “How can we have intentional time together?”
My husband and I have been near each other, working in the same home for years…for undergrad, then grad school, then working at home together, and other hard job things. The point is….I know how hard it is to be operating under the same roof.
Once you know what you and your husband need, find a solution that you can use to start small. Here are some of my favorite ideas! Like the list above for caring for yourself, pick 2-4 ideas to implement over the course of the year. You don’t need to tackle all of them at once. Just use this list to start small!
- Move furniture or rooms in your home to more or less space from each other. Create signals for “don’t talk to me” or “I want you now” – do this once
- Talk about your PDA expectations and practice regular forms of affection. Choose from a 5 minute hug, 1 minute kiss, 10 touches a week. If you are working in the same home, find a time each day to pretend like you are “coming home from work” and kiss and reconnect then. – Weekly
- Set aside time every week for a “date”. It might just be pizza and pajamas on a Friday night. But calling it a “date” tells you both that that time’s just for you. – Daily
- Break traditional family patterns and find clever ways to hang out. Skip dinner with the kids. Get a Saturday day babysitter. Create a clever TV rotation schedule at night. Do something out of the ordinary to focus on each other. – Once a month
- Check out The Dating Divas and choose one clever romantic date idea to help you reconnect. – Once a month
- Use the resources from Mort Fertel to help you talk about what you need in your relationship. Highly recommend! – Once a year
Even if you just pick one or two things to practice all year long, your intentionality will help you connect more with your partner!
What are your best New Year Resolution Goals for yourself this year?
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