Best Practices for Documenting Work Progress

Good work you forget is good work wasted. Track it and write it down. Lesson 19: Make a brag document. One of the biggest game changers for my career was writing a brag document. A brag document is simple. Once a week, you write down everything you did. Big launches. Small design feedback. Bug fixes. Mentorship. Process improvements. Anything that moves the team, the product, or the culture forward. When I was chasing my E4 to E5 promotion at Meta, I was religious with my brag doc. Every week, I would write down what I contributed across our main axes — Project Impact, Direction, Excellence, People. Then I would review it with my manager regularly. This gave me early feedback on what was strong, what was missing, and what needed course correction before it was too late. Most people only start thinking about their work at the end of the year, when performance reviews are due. By then, it is too late to fix the gaps. You cannot go back in time and generate impact. You can only capture it in the moment. Keeping a brag document forces you to see the full picture. You realize how much value you are actually creating and you also spot where you need to do more. And when the time comes to package your work for promotion, you are not scrambling to remember what you did. You have the receipts. It is tedious. It is annoying. But it is one of the most powerful tools if you are serious about leveling up. Make a brag document. Start today. I am sharing 40 lessons from 10 years of software engineering. Follow along so you do not miss the next ones.

No SWE recalls every bug they fixed. No SWE remembers every meeting they’ve attended. No SWE can pull out proof of impact on the spot when review season hits. But the best engineers I’ve worked with and have seen constantly climb the ladder in their career? They can (without having a photographic memory) How do they do it? They keep a personal worklog, they track their progress daily and it changes everything. I’ll be honest, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve nudged folks on teams to start this one habit, especially in those early career years: Here’s why Keeping a worklog is a gamechanger: → Standups: You don’t scramble for updates. You walk in, scan your log, and your work speaks for itself → Performance reviews: When it’s time to talk about promotion or pay, you’re not digging through emails trying to remember what you did. You’ve got a timeline of real wins, right there. → Self-awareness: Over months, patterns show up. You see where you’re getting stuck, where you shine, and where you can ask for help or level up. → Storytelling: Your log is the story of your growth. The little wins, the firefights, the team moments, all of it’s there. I’ve been keeping one for years and It’s never been about tracking every task, it’s about recording the meaningful things, the actual needle movers. Sometimes, I open up a year-old entry and see how far I’ve come or spot the places I kept tripping. It keeps me humble, but also shows progress nobody else sees. And recently, I've been journaling with ChatGPT, doing so, for the last 2 months. If you haven’t started a worklog, start today. Doesn’t need a fancy tool. Could be Notion, Google Docs, or a plain text file. Write down the highlights, what you built, fixed, shipped, learned. One small habit. Huge payoff over time. And when it’s time to show your value? You won’t just remember, you’ll prove it. Trust me, I wish I’d started even sooner.

The professionals who advance fastest aren't necessarily the highest performers - they're the best documenters.   The challenge many professionals face: Outstanding work without strategic documentation.   Performance reviews and promotion discussions often rely on recent memory and subjective impressions.   However, careers are built on cumulative value creation that extends beyond the most recent quarter.   The solution: A comprehensive "Brag Book" that transforms achievements into promotion-worthy evidence.   The slides above outline a systematic approach to documenting: • Quantifiable business impact with specific metrics • Cost-saving initiatives with measurable outcomes • Team development results with concrete examples • Problem-solving capabilities under pressure • External recognition and professional growth   Key principle: If you can't measure it and document it, it becomes subjective opinion rather than objective evidence.   This documentation serves multiple strategic purposes: • Performance review preparation • Promotion justification • Salary negotiation support • Interview preparation for external opportunities   The most successful professionals I work with treat career documentation as seriously as financial record-keeping.   What significant achievement from this year have you properly documented for future career discussions?   Sign up to my newsletter for more corporate insights and truths here: https://lnkd.in/ei_uQjju   #deepalivyas #eliterecruiter #recruiter #recruitment #jobsearch #corporate #promotion #careeradvancement #careergrowth