New Year, New Resolutions - Setting Yourself Up for Success

January is widely known as the month of New Year’s resolutions. A new year is a great time to reassess personal goals and create new ones. While approximately 50% of Americans make New Year’s resolutions, only 10% keep them for more than a few months.

According to a survey conducted by Finder, 74% of people are determined to learn something new, make a lifestyle change or set a personal improvement goal this year. This is up +15% from 2020. Health-related resolutions top the list, with self-improvement and money following closely behind.

Regardless of what’s on your list, it can be very hard to know where to begin. We recommend starting small with easy tasks. When it comes to the bigger, more labor intensive undertakings that never seem to get completed, like renewing a passport or creating a new budget for the year, even the most well-intentioned plans can fall apart. Luckily, we have some easy tips to help you keep your resolutions all year.

1. Categorize your list

First thing’s first: make a list of goals and tasks. Categorize them by priority and level of difficulty to help you determine what to tackle first.

2. Start with the small stuff

Going through that over-stuffed closet or cleaning out the junk drawer are easy places to start. Completing them will make you feel more productive and motivated to stick with your goals throughout the year. Organizing is relatively easy to accomplish with the right tools. If you are cleaning out a closet, identify where you can donate or sell unwanted items and then grab some garbage bags, a Sharpie and get going.

3. Get help with the bigger stuff

For the dreaded time-consuming tasks that most people tend to avoid, such as waiting hours on line to get a driver’s license renewed or enrolling in TSA Precheck for post-pandemic travel, consider enlisting a company, like Skip, to help get those tasks completed and crossed off your list. Skip eliminates the frustration associated with these errands by helping you skip lines, skip red tape and fill out lengthy paperwork, so you can spend that time on things you actually enjoy doing. Think of Skip as a marketplace for government-related services and information.

Here are some of the things Skip can help you with:

DMV Services

• Get a DMV appointment
• Take permit practice tests
• Get a car to take you to and from your road test
• Get someone to wait on line for you at the DMV
• Save money on auto insurance
• Get driver’s license reminders

COVID-19 Services

• Track your stimulus
• Track your unemployment
• Search PPP loan recipients
• Track your EIDL loan
• Get daily COVID-19 updates on state mandates and infection counts
• Access the latest COVID-19 research

Health Services

• Find a COVID-19 testing center near you
• Enroll in Medicare
• Get health insurance

Travel Services

• Enroll in TSA PreCheck
• Get door-to-door US passport renewal
• Get safe travel alerts including quarantine requirements

Skip even offers small business resources. By hiring a company to help you accomplish many universally dreaded tasks, you cam eliminate frustration. Plus it saves valuable time and money.

Speaking of money and unpleasant tasks…

New Year’s resolutions wouldn't be complete without a thorough review of your budget for the year. Now is the perfect time to assess your spending from 2020 and determine where you can save in 2021 and beyond. Start by reviewing your monthly bills. You might not realize how much you can actually save simply by renegotiating them.

If reviewing bills, researching competitive plans and calling customer service reps to negotiate better rates doesn’t sound like something you want to deal with, BillShark can help.

Just use our quick and easy cost calculator, send us your bills and let our expert negotiators handle the rest. We have a 90% success rate and you won’t pay us a thing until we save you money.

Although New Year’s resolutions are easy to start and hard to keep, partnering with companies like Skip and BillShark will help you be successful and stay on track. Add us to your list of resolutions and start accomplishing your goals today!