I just added this monthly event to my calendar. Here's why you should, too.
Just 15 minutes a month can make a real difference when preparing for one of the most important conversations you have each year
Hi there, my friend.
One of my favorite pieces of advice that I’ve shared in my book and here at “Ask, Save, Earn” is this: Take a little time regularly to write down your accomplishments. That way, you’re more likely to remember them when it comes time to build your resume or ask for a promotion.
I wrote about my friend Andy Hill’s approach — he calls it “building his cheerleader folder” — in this post..
(By the way, Andy has an amazing new book out, called “Own Your Time: 10 Financial Steps To Put Your Family First and Escape The Corporate Grind,” and I highly recommend it.)
I’ve talked about this countless times over the years because I believe it is so important. However, in the past few weeks, I got a quick reminder that I hadn’t actually been taking my own advice.
When it came time to list out what I’d accomplished for my annual review at LendingTree, I ended up having to scramble to remind myself of what I had done.
I knew I had done a lot. I just didn’t remember exactly what it all was.
It kinda made me crazy, so I decided to do something about it.
One simple step
I put a meeting in my work calendar.
Here are the details:
Starts at 9 am
Lasts 15 minutes
Happens on on the first weekday of the month
Recurring until “forever”
That’s it. Nothing fancy. Just a simple reminder to myself to take time to write down some of the cool things I did in my job recently.
The first meeting is set for February 2, and I’m looking forward to it. (BTW, the fact that I created a meeting that recurs forever and starts on Groundhog Day is not lost on me. But I digress…)
Of course, you can arrange your “accomplishment time” to happen whenever, however often and for as long as you’d like. When I told my wife about my meeting plan, she actually suggested I do it every week rather than monthly. I think I prefer doing it monthly, but if you prefer weekly, biweekly or something else, that’s great, too. The point isn’t the frequency. The point is to get in the habit.
What to track
Once “accomplishment time” is on your calendar, how do you decide what to write down when the time comes?
In my book, Michela Allocca — a financial analyst, founder of Break Your Budget and the “Beyond Your Budget” Substack and author of “Own Your Money: Practical Strategies To Budget Better, Earn More and Reach Your 6-Figure Savings Goals” — suggested organizing your accomplishments lists as follows:
Priorities and other regular responsibilities: Include meetings that you lead, reports that you generate, content that you create, “tasks to keep the lights on,” she says.
Additional work outside your typical duties: “Somebody asking me for a favor, a new project, a last-minute request. ‘Hey, can you run this quick analysis for me, or could you jump in this meeting?’ Everything asked of me outside my normal role, I would write down and track for examples of how I’m going above and beyond,” Allocca says.
Accomplishments on a weekly basis: “They could be small, they could be large. It could be leading a meeting, presenting to an executive, wrapping a project, onboarding an intern, or whatever. Anything that’s bringing value to your team and moving the needle forward in the company, whether quantifiable or not.”
It is one of my favorite pieces of advice in the book because it is simple, clear and can be really impactful.
It may seem like a lot of extra work on a regular basis, but it shouldn’t be. In fact, if you get into the habit of doing this regularly, you should be able to do it pretty quickly each month because it should all be relatively fresh in your mind.
Beyond that, however, the truth is that the short time you spend each month will feel more than worth it when you’re preparing for your next review and wading through a list of all of your great accomplishments for the year instead of racking your brain to remember what you did back in January and February.
In other news, watch this space!
Can’t say much about it just yet, but I’ve got a giveaway coming soon. I’ll likely announce it in an extra email beyond the normal Thursday morning edition, so keep an eye out. Should be coming in the next week or two.
Until next time!
Matt
I never remembered all the things I did when I worked in academia! Working for myself now, I probably still should be doing this, but I wonder if you have any advice for those who freelance or own their own small business on what to keep track of?