Losing 10 pounds by summertime and spending more time volunteering are well-intentioned resolutions. But when making New Year's resolutions, it's important to also consider career enhancement goals.

• Write career goals for 2008, divided into seasons. Think big picture, and review your season's goals often. Additionally, every morning write three daily goals that are reasonable.

• Join a "listserv"-a targeted e-mail list that includes other people in your profession -so you can pose questions to the group and get rapid responses, saving you much research time.

• Create or update a LinkedIn account and explore the power of online social networking. Based on the theory that people are only separated by six degrees, you'll expand your network each time you issue and accept an invitation. It's sort of like Facebook for adults who wish to make professional connections. A colleague of mine recently found an important business contact who had been "missing" after a job change.

• Evaluate your time and its worth. Determine which tasks you can delegate to others and ask your boss if it is really necessary for everyone to be included in each meeting. The author of "The 4-Hour Workweek" says that 20 percent of our work life causes 80 percent of our problems. Try to eliminate the unnecessary.

• If planning to ask for a raise this year, prepare evidence that you've gone above and beyond the call of duty. Keep documentation and thank-you letters from clients or colleagues.

• If you don't get a raise, ask for something else such as the option to telecommute one day a week, flex time in the summer, membership in a professional organization, an expense-paid conference, or continuing education.

• Take an evening or online continuing education class at a high school or college to learn new skills that will make you more valuable to your employer. My local high school offers a four-week session on PowerPoint, for example. And institutions such as Champlain College offer five-week to full-semester courses, plus a variety of career-focused professional certificates and degrees.

• Dust off your resume and make certain it is updated and polished. A new opportunity may present itself suddenly and you don't want to miss it because your resume is not current.

• Are you a member of professional organization? Does it host conferences and networking events? Ask your employer if you can be reimbursed for a membership and if you may attend a national conference for the benefit of your professional development, as well as for a shot of energy that'll keep you going for months.

• Simplify your work life. Begin cleaning up your work space 15 minutes before quitting time each afternoon. Write a list that will greet you in the morning so you don't start with trying to recall what you may not have finished or who you were going to get back to. Effective professionals designate two times a day for checking e-mail in large doses.

• Start a book group at your work place that is supported by management. Read relevant business-related books and hold half hour discussions facilitated by a different "host" each month.

• Help other professionals. Many people choose to contribute to Dress For Success (www.dressforsuccess.org), a national organization that provides professional clothing and career advice to disadvantaged women. Since 1997, the organization has suited up 350,000 women, most of whom have retained their jobs, built their credit ratings, and gone on to complete their GEDs.

Daphne Walker is a career advisor in the Career Services Office at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. Champlain was named one of the top picks for "schools offering the best career services" in the Kaplan/Newsweek College Catalog.

Posted 12/07/07