The start of a new year is a chance to reflect and decide how to make this year better than the last. With 80 percent of people quitting their New Year's resolutions by February, you can increase your chances of success with simpler goals that are easier to implement.

Here are five steps you can take to improve this year:

1. Clear your email inbox

All that electronic clutter often means missed messages and time wasted trying to find an email. Take five minutes each day for the next week to clear out your email. A quick way to start is by sorting messages by sender and deleting any junk mail.

2. Clean off your desk

A messy desk makes it challenging to focus. It's also more difficult to find that file you need when it's buried under a pile of paperwork. Block out an hour (or two) to organize your desk or tackle this in short 10-15-minute increments over a few days. Once you have it cleaned up, take five minutes at the end of each workday to keep it organized.

3. Discover your staff members' goals

Talk with your team about their goals for the year. What do they want to change or improve? How would they like to develop professionally or personally? As you learn their goals, discuss how you can support their efforts.

4. Set your own goals

Evaluate your department and think through how what you see impacts your own goals for the year. Do you need to shorten the time it takes to close the books each month? Would you prefer to have a larger volunteer team to handle the offering each Sunday? Discuss these goals with your team and get their input.

5. Learn as a team

It's easy to stagnate if your team doesn't take time to learn and develop together. An easy way to manage this is by assigning a different person each week to bring an article or book excerpt to a staff meeting. Whatever they bring this week, everyone has the next several days to read and prepare to discuss at the next meeting.

Think of this as your "iron sharpens iron" time. It's a chance to talk through new accounting practices, leadership principles, spiritual concepts and how to make your department run more efficiently.

These changes aren't huge, but they're easy to implement and can have a significant impact. By working with your team to make incremental improvements this year, you increase your likelihood of success and grow stronger as a team.