Do you sometimes feel that you’re giving great advice to your stakeholders but not following that advice yourself? Maybe you’re ignoring your own data?
If you’re reading this, I’m confident you’re someone who helps others in some way. Either through the products you build, the knowledge and skills you use to solve their problems, or maybe to share ideas that helped you with someone who can’t see what their next step should be. Somehow it’s easier to help others and address their challenges than to tackle some of our own, no matter how much they’ve been bugging us.
Time to look at your own data and in this case, for the context of your career, you get this data through observation (and recording it if you’d like).
Try this reflection exercise
I invite you to set aside 15 minutes this week to look at your own data to find out when you do your best work (e.g. writing really elegant code, finding answers for your stakeholders, designing a great dashboard, etc.).
Data sources you already have:
- Your calendar
- Your task list / JIRA tickets, etc.
- A journal where you write about your day
For additional input to make this reflection exercise easier, write down the answers to the following questions:
- In what situations do you do your best work?
- What does your physical environment look like?
- Are you using multiple screens?
- Listening to music?
- What skills and talents do you use most of the time when you do your best work?
- What kind of work are you doing?
Based on the answers you come up with and after looking at how you’ve spent your time recently, would you say you’re giving yourself the best chance to get work done and for that work to be great? If not, what does your data tell you? Where should you make some changes?
Those small changes can stack up and transform your workday. It’s well worth a try.
Have a great week!
Eva
P.S.: Reflections like this are just a small piece of what I work on with my coaching clients and they’re essential for getting clear on who you are, what you want, and what to do next. If your next career move feels like an overwhelming thing to figure out, let’s chat and see how I can help you.