Questions Ask Yourself Towards The New Year (Yes, 2022 is 67% Over)
In today’s newsletter, I want to share 3 questions that help me start reviewing and the current start planning for the next year.
A yearly review sounds tedious, boring, and overwhelming.
Besides something that you need to do for your company, the yearly (and quarterly) review process is a time to reflect, and see how your experience, thoughts, and feelings evolve over time.
Use these 3 questions below to start your thinking process.
Answer them.
Then come back to them in a month. See what happens.
1. What compliment do I wish I could receive about my work?
Answering this question helps me identify multiple issues:
- Communication problems
If I haven't received it, it may not have been seen. Why?
Maybe I needed to communicate better.
- Am I impactful?
I might want to be recognized for something I find incredible about my work.
Maybe it's great but not adding enough value.
I once helped a coworker automate some one-time task. It was fun to do and my hour spent on it saved the coworker half a day of manual work.
Turns out, neither should have been done.
My colleague felt the pressure to deliver the result that was no longer needed. I fell in love with my solution. So, not being recognized for it was a wake-up call.
2. What was the last thing I built at work that you enjoyed?
I love
- building things
- starting new projects
- exploring new technologies
- fix interesting bugs
But often the days are filled with meetings, old projects, boring technologies, and really annoying bugs.
At some point in my last job, I realized that I needed something new to work on. I heard my team lead assigning a new project in a new language to my colleague. I asked to be a part of it.
Turns out, he never would have thought of me, but was happy to assign me as well.
(This is how I learned Python btw).
Keeping a list of things I enjoyed working on helped me back then and might help you get through those routing days when nothing spectacular happens.
It might also make you sharper so you can proactively seek out things you'd like to work on that bring you joy.
3. What aspect of my current job would I bring to a future gig?
This one is about the positive things happening to you.
When you're with a company for a while, you start seeing things that don't work well. Sometimes you fantasize about another project, team, or even company.
This question often helps me focus on the good things I'd like to keep.
If you're gonna switch jobs, it will help you evaluate new opportunities.
If you're gonna stay, it will increase your appreciation for the current place.
Win-Win.
That's it for today.
See you again next week.
Whenever you're ready, I'd like to help you Level Up personally:
- Join my LinkedIn community (1466 followers) here
- Schedule a free one-on-one with me here
- Ask me anything via email here
Cheers,
Ilya