Christmas might already be over this year, but it is never too late to give a gift to yourself that keeps on giving. This year, give yourself the gift of career development. And don’t worry – it doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming to strengthen your skills and get ahead in your career path.

4 Easy Ways to Invest in Career Development

1. Subscribe to a Professional Development Newsletter (or two!)

If you haven’t done it yet, it is a good idea to subscribe to at least one professional development newsletter which can keep you abreast of both the latest business trends and new applications of time-tested business knowledge. Taking the time to read everything from timesaving tips to innovative strategic ideas can help put your career development on the right track for the new year. Even better, you can subscribe to such a newsletter for free. Just be sure not to overburden yourself with reading material, or you might get burned out before you start to see results.

2. Take an Online Personality Test

Another way to accelerate your career development this year is to better understand your own personal strengths and weaknesses. You can get useful personalized results from an online personality test that will help you understand your own communication style as well as what makes others tick. Armed with this knowledge, you will be much better prepared to handle any given situation that arises in a skillful and tactful manner. Which inexpensive online personality test is right for your career development?

3. Increase Your Professionalism in the Workplace

One surefire way to improve your career development path is to boost your professionalism. Indeed, in tough economic times, it is more important than ever that you dress appropriately for your position, that you do not flaunt personal business around the office, and that you are able to get along with your coworkers, even the difficult ones. If this is an area that you need to work on, consider investing in a short professionalism course to get you back on track.

4. Improve Your Work-Life Balance

It is especially hard to keep your career momentum going if you can’t seem to stay on top of all of your current commitments. Try to simplify and streamline in order to re-establish your work-life balance. Your career development can suffer if you can’t stay on top of things, so figure out what strategies you need to use to manage your time more effectively.