With much of the stress of the holidays over now and work not as busy as normal this week, it’s a good time for many of us to reflect on the past year and set personal and professional goals for what we want to achieve in 2012.

The federal government’s list of Americans’ most-popular new year’s resolutions is probably what you would expect. Among the goals:

• Lose weight
• Manage stress
• Manage debt
• Save money
• Take a trip
• Volunteer more often
• Get a better education
• Get a better job

I have the first six of these on my resolution list this year as well (as I do pretty much every year).  But I also have some professional resolutions.

I’m at work this week and using the time to get some things done around the office, cleaning out my desk and trying to start new habits to make my work more effective next year. Professionally, I’d like to stay more focused in 2012 and work on my organization and follow through.

I’d also like to attend more CLEs and become more involved in bar associations. FindLaw suggests focusing on writing skills, technology and marketing, which I think are good, broad starting points for even the best attorneys to find something specific that they can improve upon.

What about everyone else: are you making any resolutions to make your practice more effective next year? Anyone have any tips on how to stay motivated when Feb. 1 rolls around and those last 5 pounds are still stuck on you and the emails and calls to return are piling up?

Whatever your goals for next year, good luck and happy new year!

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