Keep a Bragdoc

What you’ve accomplished, shipped to production, or how you’ve impacted others on your team can be lost or blend in with your usual day-to-day tasks. When the time comes for promotions or you just need to be reminded of what you’ve done, keeping a bragdoc with the list of your accomplishments is invaluable.

The bragdoc is a simple way to keep track of what you’ve done. A bragdoc is simply a running list, that you keep up to date, of your accomplishments and contributions. Each item in the list is something that you have achieved, created, contributed to, or otherwise feel is worth calling out.

• Changed the color of a button? Add it to the bragdoc.
• Interviewed someone? Add it to the bragdoc.
• Solved a production bug? Add it to the bragdoc.
• Delivered a new feature? Add it to the bragdoc.
• Created a bragdoc? Add it to the bragdoc?

Don’t spend too much time deciding what should be added to the bragdoc. As long as the item is relevent to your career or goals, that item should be considered worthy of your bragdoc. Also, the length of the item is up to you. It can be a single sentence as long as you know why you’re noting it in the bragdoc.

If absolutely necessary you can add a date or label to help organize your bragdoc items.

Over time your bragdoc will grow in size and you can look back at what you’ve accomplished. Doing so could be just pick me up you need. Open a word doc, google doc, text file, or wherever place you can access at anytime and start keeping track of your accomplishments. Revisit it regularly to see how far you’ve come.