How to achieve your New Year's Resolutions (with a little help from Dropbox)

It's the start of a new year, which means millions of people are vowing to hit the gym, be more productive, and save money. That's right, it's New Year's Resolutions time. The harsh reality is that New Year's Resolutions are hard to keep—but we can make that a little easier. Here's how to achieve five of the most common resolutions, with help from Dropbox.

1. Be more organized

Nothing makes you feel less organized than having files—both physical and digital—scattered across computers, hard drives, filing cabinets, and folders. Try consolidating to Dropbox, so you can have all your files available on all your devices while keeping them in one central place. You'll always know where everything is, and you'll know that it's safe and secure. Plus, if you update a file on your phone, the version on your laptop gets updated automatically (and vice versa). Staying organized was never so easy.

Pro tip: You can get rid of lots of clutter by going paperless. Try using a Dropbox-integrated scanning app to easily bring your physical files into the digital age.

2. Shed the pounds

While we can't wake you up every morning and make you go to the gym, Dropbox can help you achieve your health goals. Try saving your workout routines or exercise moves to your Dropbox, so you can easily pull them up on your phone for reference when you're at the gym. The same goes for recipes and meal guidelines; save them to your Dropbox so you can quickly refer back when you're at the grocery store or at a restaurant.

Pro tip: Try keeping a food diary in Microsoft Word or Excel and saving it to Dropbox. You'll always have the latest version with you, and you can even add meals and snacks from your iPhone or iPad.

3. Spend less, save more

Setting a budget is just the first step towards saving money; to be successful, you also have to track what you spend. Make that part easier by saving your receipts in a dedicated folder in Dropbox, both by saving PDFs of digital receipts and by snapping photos of physical receipts. That way, when you're tracking progress against your budget, you'll know exactly where to look to tally everything up.

Pro tip: Keeping all your receipts in Dropbox can make tax time a lot easier, too. Try structuring the receipts folder in certain categories, like 'home improvement,' 'work expenses,' and 'healthcare.' Then when you're filing your taxes, you'll know exactly where to look for expenses that could be deductible.

4. Stay on top of emails

Ah, email. It can be the downfall of even the most organized and productive among us. This year, clear out your inbox—and keep it that way—with Mailbox, the email app from Dropbox designed to help you fly through your inbox.

Pro tip: Customize the labels and snoozing times in Mailbox to your workflow. Depending on how you process emails, you can create labels like "To do," "To read," "To respond," "To buy," "To ask about," "Recipes to make," etc. The possibilities are endless.

5. Be more productive at work

With all the productivity gains you'll see in your personal life, your work life might get jealous. Bring your professional life into the fold and help the rest of your team reach productivity enlightenment with Dropbox for Business. You and your teammates can share files of any size easily, so you don't have to waste time finding workarounds for email attachment limits or lost thumb drives. And whether they're in the office or on the road, your coworkers will have the documents they need—so the whole team can stay in sync.

Pro tip: Dropbox for Business has a bunch of sophisticated features that can really help at work, like unlimited version history and deletion recovery, all the space you need (starting at 1 TB per person), native collaboration features in desktop programs like Microsoft Office, full-text search, and more.

How will you use Dropbox to help you achieve your New Year's Resolutions? Share your tips in the comments section below!