How to win 2025

After many years of trial and error, here is a list of things that tend to work for me. My goal is to strive for balance, joy and success in both my professional and personal life. And at a time where everything is so demanding, being grounded on a few principles has really helped me.

Here are my top 10 tips at winning 2025:

1) Set clear goals, only a handful and prioritise them. Then break them down into quarterly and monthly chunks to make them more manageable. I’m a big fan of diarising key steps.

2) Improve time management by planning out the week (and month/year if you can), then – and this is key! – time block specific slots for each goal, including personal goals.

I’m often overheard saying “if it’s not in the calendar, it doesn’t happen!”, so I make full use of a digital calendar to plan both my week days and weekends, professional and personal time. Being deliberate about assigning time is half the battle.

3) Prioritise your health – if there is one lesson I learnt the hard way – make sure you set a small or big health related goal that will force you to practice healthy habits.

After years of deprioritising my health, I decided to?summit Kilimanjaro in 2024, and now I have set 3 health related goals for 2025: to complete a half marathon (eek), to climb Annapurna Base Camp solo and to undertake the epic Otter Trail with a group of friends. Avoiding physical activity means that I won’t be able to achieve these goals, so you bet I will be diarising time to exercise!

4) Cultivate work-life balance, and if you are a leader –>lead by example.

Key things here include setting boundaries and being clear on work style, unplugging regularly, connecting with the team members on topics unrelated to work and (very important) planning personal time with family/friends/loved ones.

For example, I already have some weekend activities and family holidays planned out and committed for the year.

5) Invest in professional growth by enrolling in an online course, reading industry-related articles and books, seeking constructive feedback from your manager and peers, and actively building a network to learn from. If you’re not learning, you are being left behind!

6) Manage stress proactively, sigh… easier said than done but vital for sustainability.

I can’t provide much advice on this one, other than highlighting its importance; but I find that identifying triggers, contextualising the bigger picture and taking shorts breaks (like a 5-minute coffee walk) are very helpful.

Also, being physically strong helps me manage stress a lot better, and I’m a sucker for a good yoga or spa session.

7) Embrace technology for efficiency – hello AI! As much as possible, use tools to organise tasks and automate repetitive work.

Bonus tip: delegate more effectively to allow for growth opportunities of others.

8) Focus on financial wellbeing – the media and tech industries have been tough environments over the last two years. So, as much as possible, I would advise spending some time setting a budget, investing wisely and planning for emergencies. This will provide some peace of mind among the chaos of life.

9) Stay positive and resilient by accepting challenges with grit, practicing gratitude and surrounding yourself with people who will support and inspire you. In other words, choose your tribe smartly, elevate them and make sure they are elevating you!

10) Lastly, review and adjust accordingly – some weeks/months are busier than others and things can get derailed quickly. When this happens, take a few minutes to ground yourself, adjust where needed and get back on track, knowing that it will never be perfect and you won’t ever tick all the boxes, all at once. Rather focus on consistent improvement.

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Pro tip: it’s taken me years to get some of these right, and I am still learning and challenging myself every day. So, choose 1 or 2 steps and make them habits before taking on more steps. Remember, your objective should be to achieve long term balance. Be kind to yourself, and avoid chasing a ‘quick fix’ resolution.

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Hope that helps! Happy New Year everyone ??

May it be a joyful, adventurous and successful year for us all.