It’s the time of year when we all make promises to make ourselves better people. Pledges to improve our health or organise our lives. So here are five quick resolutions we should all make as designers or developers.

Clean up your code

Look through your code and clean it up. Remember, Google is watching and will favour sites with cleaner code. Get rid of those unnecessary tags. Add in attributes such as alt tags. Combine sections from multiple plages into include files.

Get Analytics

It only takes five minutes to get analytics code into your site. It will give you a wealth of information. You can use more than one system in tandem to see which one you feel works best. And remember to exclude your own visits.

Learn the basics of jQuery, CSS3 and HTML5

A javascript library such as jQuery will save you time and give your websites nice features with less effort. CSS3 and HTML5 are already supported in some browsers, using them now will give you a head start when they become more widely supported.

Build your social networks

Get accounts on popular social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Even if you don’t use them tomorrow, you may lose your chance to grab your username. But start using them to market yourself and build your brand.

Make a video

Making a video has never been easier. Talk to the camera or off camera. Use screencasting software to share your skills, or make a video to promote yourself. Use your phone, your digicam or your camcorder. Use a videosharing site like YouTube or Vimeo if you want it to get noticed.