Ever feel like you always have so much to do, yet never get anything done? You likely have an ongoing task list, Post-it notes stuck all around your desk ,and co-workers constantly approaching you with more things they need help with. With so much that needs to get done, it’s easy to forget everything you’ve accomplished — and chances are that’s a lot.
(Photo Credit: Death to the Stock Photo)
If you’re getting lost in everything you have to do, here are a few easy to ways to keep track of your accomplishments — which can be a great way to boost your confidence and motivate you throughout the day, week, or just throughout your career.
1. Write It Down
One super method is to write down your wins, according to Fast Company. You might want to keep a running log in Evernote, a private blog, or just a journal you keep tucked away in your desk. At the end of every day — before you leave work or during the commute home — write down everything awesome that happened. It could be a gratitude journal of sorts, but this way you can look back at the end of every week, month, or year and have a long list of everything you accomplished. It could come in handy when it’s time for your annual review, when you’re ready to ask for a promotion, or when you’re considering your next career move.
2. Review Your Accomplishments
Fast Company also recommends you regularly review your accomplishments. If you just write down everything you do, but never take the time to look back, you’ll never remember that presentation you knocked out of the park (yet your boss complimented you for several weeks after). Set aside time at the end of every week, month, or quarter to review your accomplishments and highlight the ones that really stand out. These might be things you did that made a difference to your personal life (such as something that directly led to a raise) or accomplishments that you want to make a note of for your annual review or to add to your resume.
3. Add Your Wins to LinkedIn
Almost every professional uses LinkedIn — especially executives looking to hire people with significant accomplishments. If you’re looking for an easy to log what you’ve done (and also don’t mind bragging about them to your colleagues at the same time), add these to your LinkedIn profile.
“Anyone who looks at your completed LinkedIn profile will see your ability to contribute in real time,” explains Tim Tyrell-Smith at US News.
They will also see they are engaged in your company.
4. Use Social Media
Tyrell-Smith also suggests using social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, to share your accomplishments. While these aren’t as easy to track, it might be easier for Millennials to log than other methods, since this demographic is using social media multiple hours per day. If you choose this route, consider grabbing the permalink for the post and copying it into a running Google or Word doc where you keep track of the posts in which you share your accomplishments.
5. Save Your Work
This one might seem like a no-brainer, but it’s a mistake I made early in my career; be sure that when you create work — whether that’s a presentation, a whitepaper, a technical doc or anything else that isn’t subject to an NDA, save a copy to your own computer or the cloud. (Bonus points: Upload your whitepapers and other work to LinkedIn as it’s published!)
If you’re a writer, be sure you save your clips and blog posts as PDFs in the event your client’s publication shuts down unexpectedly. The last thing you want is to dedicate hours to creating quality work and have nothing to show for it. You can then upload this work somewhere private, or create a public portfolio somewhere like Contently (which also counts how many publications you’ve written for, the number of articles you’ve published, and your word count).
Tell Us What You Think
Do you track your accomplishments? We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or join the discussion on Twitter.
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