As the year draws to a close, Residence Life professionals might feel one of two ways: you’re either careening toward the end of the semester full-tilt, hair getting increasingly tangled, shooting espresso with alarming frequency, OR the office is getting a little quieter each day with more and more folks taking time off, events and programs winding down, and more time at your desk checking off the to-do list. Regardless of which camp you fall in, December always seems to prompt reflection on the past year and consideration of how to tackle the next. To that end, here are 12 ideas for 12 months to help you tangibly change your work life for the better.
January: Give yourself grace with any New Year’s resolutions—more and more folks I talk to eschew the concept altogether these days. Instead, make a concrete plan to welcome back your team when your campus opens up again. If you supervise professional staff, send an invitation to have lunch together where you can debrief and share holiday stories. For those with RA staffs, consider new door decs or “welcome back” notes in each of their mailboxes.
February: We all have our workplace annoyances. Maybe it’s an administrative procedure that constantly gets flagged for errors. Maybe a particular curriculum strategy just falls flat every year. Or perhaps your inbox or shared file system is just out of control. Identify one small problem and take the month to fix it or recommend a solution to your department. (For those of us in the upper half of the US, this month’s weather is pure misery, so what else are you going to do anyway?)
March: By this time in the year, you’ve probably already hired next year’s student staff or you’re in that process right now. What are 5-10 pieces of information that could help your new hires mentally prepare for their upcoming roles? Use Canva or another tool to create a visually appealing infographic and send to your new hires to keep them engaged while they’re in the “in between” season.
April: Look back on your year of duty logs and emergency reports. Pick three situations that could have gone…better. What processes, training, or partnership need to be tightened up for the future? Consider pulling together a small work group of diverse roles to pressure test new procedures.
May: Try out a new way of celebrating your graduating residents. At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, we instituted the “Husker Home Legacy Awards”—a celebration of residents who had lived with us their entire college journey. We invited them to our offices where we set up a room full of balloons, photo ops, cupcakes, and presented them with a personalized certificate to commemorate their time with Housing. We got a lot of smiles and a chance to meet some of our most long-standing residents!
June: Phew, it’s summer! Or conversely: Gah!! How is it summer already? If your life is anything like mine, summer feels simultaneously busy and quiet all at the same time. With most students away from campus and fewer regularly standing meetings, I spend a little more time on my own at the office. It’s the perfect time to pick one professional development project and spend an hour or two a week dedicated to the cause. A book, a podcast, a microcourse to develop a new skill—the world is your oyster.
July: Ok, it’s HOT in Nebraska in July. Except inside. The AC is blasting and it’s FREEZING in the office! What is up with that? Take yourself on a what I call “the ice cream walk,” perfect for you if your dining hall offers soft serve ice cream cones like ours does. Grab a cone, head out into the 99-degree heat, and go on a quick walk to see if you can eat that cone before it melts all over the place. I find that the Ice Cream Walk is the perfect way to warm up from the AC and actually *enjoy* the blistering heat for a few minutes.
August: August is here. That means it’s time to rock-and-roll, people. Gear your team up for training, move-in, and welcome week with some thoughtfully curated mini care packages. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on this. Pair someone’s favorite energy drink or candy with an encouraging and motivating note. Or print a few photos of fun memories from the last year to help everyone keep your “why” front and center. Even a Teams or Slack message first thing in the morning with some genuine enthusiasm and gratitude can help kick off a long day on a positive note.
September: This one’s for Roompact users—have you tried the Microsurvey feature? This tool sends a short one-question survey to residents that they can respond to via text. We’ve used this the past two years to check in on roommate relationships and gotten a few thousand responses each time. If you keep your answer options simple, the data is easy to digest and sort. For example, “How are things going with your roommate? Respond Great, Ok, or Bad” will generate responses that can quickly point to residents who need immediate follow-up.
October: Complete what I like to call an “environmental scan.” Make a list of your peer institutions and give yourself a concrete topic to focus on: RA training, Learning Community portfolio, hall government structure. Then investigate how each peer institution addresses your topic. Scan their websites or reach out to staff with a few (concise and specific) questions that would provide insight into their programs. Sometimes the best ideas aren’t brand new, they’re just retooled for your campus.
November: Does your department like to eat? I know ours does. Kick off a new tradition with a chili cook-off, Friendsgiving potluck, or a murder mystery “dinner” social. Or maybe your team has more niche tastes—I can totally see a “best popcorn toppings” or “Hot Ones: Residence Life Edition” event being right up some staffs’ alley.
December: Well, here you are again! Back where we started! The idea for this month is to plan 12 *new* ideas for the next year. And if that feels like a cop-out, consider hosting an “Innovation Challenge” department meeting. Much like a Shark Tank concept, teams get 15-20 minutes to come up with a big idea that will change how you do your work. At UNL, adding package lockers and restructuring our customer service operations are real-life changes that emerged from the seedlings of ideas at our own Innovation Challenges.
Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize, once said, “If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied.” So if only one of these ideas sparks something for you, take it and run with it. Here’s to a fresh and fulfilling 2026!
