How Keeping a Work Log (aka Brag List) Helps You Get Promoted? 📈
🎁 Notion Template: Work Log (aka Brag List) template included! (4 min)
One year ago, I started a new job.
One year late, I got promoted during the first possible promotion cycle.
There’s one instrument that helped me a lot → keeping a work log (aka brag list) of all the achievements and impact I’ve done over the period.
And it not only help me, but it also helped my manager to defend my promotion case.
In today’s article, I’ll share why keeping a work log (aka brag list) is so crucial.
I’ll also share my personal Work Log (Brag List) template in Notion.
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Why Keeping a Work Log Matters?
You don’t remember everything you did
you can’t remember all the things you’ve done in the last 6-12 months, so keeping a record makes a big difference
Boosts your confidence
looking at your work log, you can see the amount of work done, your progress, impact, and key contribution
Reduces imposter syndrome
looking back at your work is the only way to see your growth, learnings, and what you’ve accomplished
Clarifies you impact
by seeing a list of all achievements makes it easier to quantify the impact you’ve made over a certain period
and no one can say anything about that because it’s documented
Supports Self-Promotion
it’s much easier to apply for a promotion with a strong and documented case, supporting all necessary points to get promoted
Self-Promotion is not about showing off, it’s about sharing what you worked hard for and your impact.
Keeping a Work Log Helps Your Manager
When it comes to a promotion, your manager plays a crucial role.
That’s the person who should create a promotional case, present it in front of others, and defend it against the naysayers.
Supporting your manager with clear evidence of your impact and accomplishments helps him get the job done.
By sharing your work log (aka brag list), you help your manager:
Be your advocate
having your work log helps your manager to present clear examples, evidence, and defend your promotional case
Save time and effort
your manger won’t dig deeper into JIRA tasks, tickets, or PRs because they have everything they need to build their promotional case
And remember, your manager also doesn’t remember everything you did.
It’s your job to remind him of your work done.
🎁 Notion Template: Work Log (aka Brag List) Template For Software Engineers
Use this template to create your own work log (brag list) and list of accomplishments.
Paid subscribers, you can get it here:
Start Your Work Log (aka Brag List)
The most important thing is to start documenting what you do on a daily basis.
Personally, I do it every week, so I don’t forget anything.
Every Friday I have a dedicated 15-30 min slot to reflect on the accomplishments from the last week.
Small or big, I record them all.
Examples of achievements to include:
work done on projects and results
code reviews, pull requests, design docs
mentorship and/or onboarding roles
company wide initiatives, improvements, or participation in working groups
interviews
helping stakeholders
and other relevant things you think are worth recording
📋 Recap
Keeping a work log (or brag list) helps you track accomplishments so you can easily share them during performance reviews.
Both you and your manager might forget something, so keeping a record of your work done makes a huge difference.
Self-Promotion is not about showing off, it’s about sharing what you worked hard for and your impact.
Update your work log (or brag list) every week or two to avoid forgetting about something.
That's all for today. I hope this was helpful. ✌️
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This is a great advice Petar.
Maintaining such a log throughout the year is so beneficial when you need the information later on.
Brag logs are the best for performance evaluation meetings.
Congrats on 20k subs my friend, keep rocking it!