You may have heard the advice to maintain a list of your accomplishments at work. Sometimes, these are called brag sheets, brag journals, etc. My first manager at my first full-time job recommended I keep one. That, along with, always get the company 401(k) match and max it out as early as possible were such great advice!

Why Have One for Yourself?

Chances are, the place where you work holds performance reviews, probably at least annually (poor), twice a year (good), or quarterly (best). You might do a self-evaluation and your manager probably writes one. Having an accomplishments list acts as source material for both of you! While your manager is hopefully invested in your success, you need to manage your own career. Your manager probably has a number of direct reports. It's difficult to remember all the good things you and everyone else did! Help them out by keeping track of things as you go.

What Does It Look Like?

At my current company, I've kept an accomplishments list basically the whole time. Here's how I've set it up. I'm the owner of a Google Doc named "Brett's Accomplishments" - in case other people with the same manager also have such a list. My manager is an editor. I have a main heading with each year, secondary headings for each quarter (since we have quarterly performance reviews), and bullets with a date and description for every thing I do.

# 2024
## Q3
- 7/17 Blogged about accomplishments lists.
Shared with manager peers to help them better 
advocate for their people.

Whenever possible, I include links to evidence: pull requests, Confluence articles, etc. As with resumes, including the quantified impact makes accomplishments that much better!

For Managers

I have all my direct reports maintain an accomplishments list. I add things to their lists periodically and review them in one-on-one meetings to keep it on their minds. It makes performance reviews so much easier. Instead of trying to remember what people did, it's just an act of consolidating.