Time – mardihumphreys.com

The Priority

Meetings pile up, emails flood in, and by the end of the workday, you’ve spent more time reacting than making intentional choices. What if managing your time Isn’t just about productivity? What if it’s an act of self-respect?

The Reasoning

Value: When you prioritize your schedule, you send a message that your time is valuable and should be used purposefully. Research from ScienceDirect.com shows that people who set clear boundaries around their time experience greater job satisfaction and overall well-being.

Self-Care: Just like you care for your physical health by eating well and exercising, managing your time is a form of self-care. A study published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology found that employees who have control over their schedules experience lower stress levels and higher engagement.

Benefits

Better Mental Health: When you take control of your schedule, you reduce feelings of being overwhelmed. A report by the American Psychological Association found that time-related stress contributes significantly to burnout. By allocating time for work, rest, and personal activities, you maintain a healthier mental state.

Increased Job Satisfaction: Prioritizing tasks that align with your goals and values makes your work more meaningful. Research from Happy Companies indicates that employees who spend more time on meaningful tasks report higher job satisfaction and are more likely to stay engaged in their roles.

Stronger Sense of Self-Worth: Making deliberate choices about how you spend your time shows you believe your goals and well-being are important. This leads to greater confidence and resilience at work.

Prioritize

Review: At the beginning of each workday, take a few minutes to review and prioritize your tasks. Identify the top three most important things you want to get done and work on those first, preferably uninterrupted.

Technology: Use apps like digital calendars, task management tools, and reminders to keep track of your schedule and commitments. Tools like Asana, Trello, or even a spreadsheet can help you stay organized and focused.

Boundaries: Through status messages or direct conversations, communicate your availability to your coworkers and managers. Let them know the best times to reach you and when you need uninterrupted time to focus.

Rest: Schedule short breaks throughout your day to recharge. This not only boosts productivity but also respects your need for downtime. You may find The Pomodoro Technique useful. It suggests 25 minutes of work followed by a 5-minute break.

Calls to Action

Delegate: Thinking you have to do everything yourself is a trap. A study by the American Management Association found organizations who delegate well have a 30% increase in productivity. Learn to trust colleagues and delegate tasks that don’t require your direct involvement.

Say No: It’s hard to say no to projects you find attractive, but pause and assess whether a request aligns with your goals before committing. A 2024 study from Mental Health America found that professionals who confidently say no experience lower stress levels and higher job performance.

Manage Decision Fatigue: Decision fatigue is real, and it drains your mental energy. A study published in PNAS found that judges make less favorable rulings later in the day due to decision fatigue. The same thing applies to you. Automate minor decisions, like meal planning or outfit choices, to free up mental space for more important work-related decisions.

What’s one small change you can make today to respect your time? Please share in the comments.

Natural Intelligence

For 2025 our conversations will focus on Power Skills (the skills formerly known as “Soft”). Why? To future proof our jobs. As Artificial Intelligence (AI) reshapes the planet, we face a unique challenge: Staying relevant in a workplace where technology automates repetitive tasks. AI excels at technical, hard skills tasks like data analysis, coding, and project tracking. Eventually quantum computing will do hard skills jobs at enterprise-level scale. But AI can’t yet replicate humanity like our ability to adapt, connect, and relate. Power skills like flexibility, empathy, and communication, aren’t just nice to have anymore. They’re essential tools you need for surviving in the future of work.

Finding the Gaps

AI creates opportunities to offload repetitive tasks, freeing you up to focus on solving complex problems, working with others, and making decisions that require emotional intelligence. Power skills fill the gap where technology ends. What does that look like? Here are some examples:

Time management: AI can organize your schedule, but it can’t prioritize tasks based on your unique team dynamics.
Productivity: Automation tools can handle routine updates, but they can’t motivate a team to overcome roadblocks.
Decision-making: Algorithms can analyze data, but interpreting how it impacts people often requires human judgment.

Filling the Gaps

In what areas can you grow where AI struggles? Empathy, adaptability, and effective communication are hard to automate because they require context, emotional nuance, and creative problem-solving. Let’s say you’re a project manager leading a team during a major transition. AI can help forecast timelines and budgets, but it can’t address your team’s concerns about job security or coach them through adapting to new tools. That’s where your emotional intelligence and leadership come in, ensuring the transition is productive and supportive.

Foiling the Gaps

Upskill: Platforms like LinkedIn Learning offer courses on communication, leadership, and conflict resolution. Start with a course that aligns with your current challenges.
Practice: Actively listen to colleagues by summarizing their concerns before responding. This shows you’re not just hearing but also understanding them. For example, during a team meeting, you realize you dominate discussions. You adjust your approach to create space for quieter teammates to contribute, leading to better outcomes. This self-awareness and empathy are skills AI does not have.
Adapt: Volunteer for cross-functional projects or tasks outside your comfort zone. It’s a great way to build resilience and learn to pivot under pressure. For example, your company adopts a new AI-based tool. Instead of resisting, you learn its features and become the go-to resource for your team, showcasing your value.
Lead: Launch small initiatives for your team, like organizing brainstorming sessions or mentoring a colleague. For example, you take the lead on a high-visibility project. You rally the team with clear goals and encouragement making everyone feel invested in the outcome.
Evaluate: Use your 1:1 meetings with your manager to request honest feedback about your communication, adaptability, or leadership. Ask for specific examples and tips for improvement.

The workplace is evolving fast, but your ability to flex, empathize, and communicate will keep you in demand. The future of work is about using AI as a tool so you can do what it can’t. Be human.

What power skill did I forget? Please share in the comments.

Get in Align

The end of the year is a good time to reflect. Don’t know where to start? You can modify the agile retrospective used in project management and use it to both look back on what you accomplished this year and look forward to what you want to accomplish next year.

Start with Four Basic Prompts:

What went well?

Acknowledge wins, big or small. Maybe you mastered a new tool, streamlined your workflow, or received positive feedback from a client. Recognizing these moments builds confidence and clarifies what you should keep doing.

What didn’t?

Reflect on challenges. Did you struggle to meet deadlines or communicate effectively with a coworker? Identify pain points without self-judgment.

What do I need to improve?

Be specific. If you found time management difficult, pinpoint the cause. Was it procrastination, overcommitment, or distractions?

What are some ideas for achieving that improvement?

Brainstorm solutions. If you aim to improve your productivity, think about turning notifications off on all your devices.

Need a template?

Here is an example to help you get started. Let’s say you struggled with time management this year. Your reflection might look like this:

What went well? You met your quarterly goals for client deliverables.

What didn’t go well? You felt constantly rushed and missed a few deadlines.

What do I need to improve? Prioritizing tasks better.

Ideas for improvement: Use a time-blocking app to organize your day, plan weekly reviews, and delegate admin tasks to focus on high-value work.

But Wait, There’s More

Now that you have a framework, here are some additional prompts to help you reflect more deeply.

What tasks energized me this year? What drained me?

If presenting at meetings invigorates you, but repetitive admin work wears you down, consider delegating low-impact tasks or automating processes to free up energy for high-value activities.

What can I let go of?

Free yourself from habits or projects that no longer serve you. Maybe it’s saying no to tasks outside your organization’s mission or stepping away from a committee that’s not aligned with your goals.

What skills do I want to develop next year?

If you’re aiming for a leadership role, focus on skills like strategic thinking or team-building.

Where did I spend most of my time? Was it aligned with my goals?

If a significant portion of your time went to handling urgent but unimportant tasks, consider revisiting your prioritization methods. For suggestions on tools, Google “time management techniques.”

What feedback did I receive this year? Did I act on it?

If you received repeated comments about your unclear communication, then use them to set improvement goals.

What decisions or actions had the most impact? What can I learn from them?

Reflect on high-impact decisions, whether positive or negative. Did you successfully manage a challenging project? Or did you miss an opportunity because you hesitated? Identify patterns in your decision-making process. It will sharpen your capability to continuously improve.

What prompts do you use to gain insight on your professional development? Please share in the comments.

Time to Give

This is the final installment of our series, Give a Little Bit. For the last three weeks we’ve talked about generously giving your energy, attention, and money to your coworkers. Let’s wrap up this topic by talking about generously giving your time. It is the most precious resource you have. Once it’s spent, you can’t get it back and you can’t make more. So, why should you give it away to your coworkers? Because it builds strong relationships which improves your team’s productivity, morale, and culture. Here are five things you can do.

Check In: Regular huddles go a long way to build a strong foundation for efficient teamwork, communication, and productivity. You can set up 15 minute weekly meetings with your team to give everyone a chance to share the most important or urgent project they’re working on, ask for assistance, and decide who is working together this week. These short meetings allow you to stay informed, connected, and aligned across projects without taking up too much time. They sustain a reliable rhythm for your team to build rapport and trust.

Shared Resource: A shared folder centralizes key information, templates, and tools. It’s especially valuable for asynchronous work when time is tight, and efficiency is crucial. Create a spreadsheet with tabs for current goals with deadlines, and a checklist of what needs to be done. Also file resources like logos, confirmation receipts, a Word document with links to pertinent articles, etc., in the shared folder. Update it regularly and encourage team members to contribute their own resources. After your weekly huddle, send out a brief recap of the week’s plan including a link to the folder. This ensures everyone has easy access to resources and keeps the whole team on the same page without lengthy meetings.

Help Out: If a colleague is struggling with a specific project, offer to work with them on a portion of it. Resist taking over the whole task. Your intention is to empower them. Could you do just the research or the data analysis or the rough draft of the report? This way, you can manage your own workload while providing immediate, practical help. You want to be known as a team player, but not a steamroller nor a doormat. If you and a teammate click, think about mutual mentorship. Can meeting informally once a quarter to share your experiences and networks be mutually beneficial? At the very least, it showcases your leadership development.

Set Goals: What gets measured, grows. Each week, aim to share one useful resource with someone on your team. Give genuine support without the expectation of getting something in return. Document these in a spreadsheet. They will be useful for your performance review. Not all accomplishments can be easily quantified. Capture anecdotal evidence describing the relationships you are strengthening, like testimonials from clients and LinkedIn recommendations from coworkers, to track the relationship-building skills you use.

Highlight Wins: When you’re in a group setting, whether it’s a team meeting or an email update, mention the accomplishments of others. It is a social norm that when you do someone a favor, like amplify their good work in front of others, they feel compelled to return that favor in kind. This should not be your only motivation to encourage your team. Instead, use it as a tool to build morale and design the environment you want to work in.

How do you generously give your time to your coworkers? Please share in the comments.

Unite and Conquer

Packed schedules, differing work styles, and multiple distractions all conspire to make you want to do the entire project yourself. But teamwork, while sometimes challenging, produces better results. If you are strategic about how you collaborate, then working with your teammates enhances time management rather than hinders it. What can you do to solve some common collaboration challenges?

Challenge: Schedule Coordination. One of the biggest hurdles to effective collaboration is aligning everyone’s calendars. The more people involved in a project, the less everyone is available at the same time.

Solution: Flexible approaches to meetings. Not every challenge needs to be solved in real time. Consider tools like asynchronous communication (e.g., email updates, shared documents, video messages, etc.) so team members can contribute when they’re available. Save meetings for solving complex problems and making decisions. One of the goals of your meetings should be getting everyone on the same page by regularly reviewing and prioritizing tasks as a team. This reduces misunderstandings and ensures that time is spent on what matters most. The further out you can schedule regular meetings, the more likely everyone is available. For example, Plan your first one-hour meeting two weeks out, then have it recur every two weeks, making scheduling smoother over time.

Challenge: Work Habits. Some people work best in bursts of energy and others need a rigid routine. This gets frustrating when there is misalignment in how tasks are approached because bottlenecks happen and progress slows.

Solution: Civil communication. When people come together they bring a variety of strengths to the table. Working with others gives you different perspectives, which reduces decision fatigue. Instead of going back and forth alone on whether to pursue a particular strategy, discussing options as a team can lead to quicker, more confident decisions. Collaboration also spreads the workload. When done effectively, delegation allows everyone to focus on their strengths and contribute where they are most effective. It’s easier to complete complex tasks when you divide them into manageable pieces, shared among the team. Discuss work preferences early in a project, so each person’s habits are clear, and adjust workflows accordingly. For example, if someone prefers frequent check-ins while others need deep focus time, strike a balance that respects both. Recognizing these differences at the beginning of a project allows you to anticipate potential friction and smooth it out before it becomes a problem.

Challenge: Interruptions and Distractions. With more collaboration comes more chances for interruptions. Whether it’s the ping of an instant message or a spontaneous request for a huddle, interruptions fracture focus and distractions derail productivity.

Solution: Boundaries around collaborative time versus focus time. Set, clearly communicate, and defend those boundaries. Establishing how and when your team communicates helps prevent unnecessary distractions. Schedule specific times for check-ins and avoid interrupting teammates during their deep work time. Make it known when you’re available for quick chats and when you need uninterrupted work time and stick to the schedule. Either batch your questions and save non-urgent issues for the team’s designated meeting times, or use one of your asynchronous communication channels.

Efficient time management isn’t just about organizing your own schedule. It’s about finding ways to work more effectively with others. By tackling the above challenges, you can turn collaboration from a time drain into a time saver.

How do you reap the benefits of collaboration without losing control of your time? Please share in the comments.

Look at the Time

Leadership requires you to coach, inspire, and shepherd people as well as manage resources like time and money. If you prioritize tasks, allocate resources prudently, and keep your team on track, then you can focus on accomplishing your organization’s mission rather than getting bogged down in day-to-day tasks. Time management helps you make better decisions, balance multiple responsibilities, and respond better to unexpected challenges.

Better Decisions

If you have a team meeting ten minutes from now, will reading this article make you late for the meeting? If you are late for the meeting, do you implicitly give your team permission to be late to meetings too? As a leader, how you manage your time sets the tone for your team. If you are organized and on time, then they are more likely to behave the same way. Effective time management demonstrates you value both your own time and that of others. It respects the team’s efforts and promotes a culture of productivity and collaboration.

Multiple Responsibilities

You do everything from managing projects and teams to developing new ideas and reporting to your manager. Time management helps you put your effort where it’s needed most. Carve out blocks of time in your schedule for thoughtful analysis and planning. Making time to align your work to your team’s goals helps you identify both opportunities and risks earlier, so you can efficiently manage both projects and resources. For example: During one of your planning blocks, you realize the project your team is working on will allow your client to create a new offering. You write an email to the client bulletpointing your observation and analysis. Your client replies very interested and grateful. When you balance your time well, you can maintain high performance across all your responsibilities without burning out or compromising the quality of your work.

Unexpected Challenges

You are producing an event one week from today. During a check-in call with the caterer, you discover they have the date wrong. They have a conflict and cannot cater your event. A well-structured schedule leaves margin for you to handle crises without derailing ongoing projects. That analysis and planning time you carved out comes into play here because during it, you made contingency plans. Now you can confidently delegate tasks quickly to your team, like calling other caterers, so they can continue to function during this challenge as well as remain calm under pressure.

Mastering time management is an ongoing process. Your goal is to try something, see what happens, analyze the result, change what you don’t like, then try again. There are plenty of strategies to help you manage your time. You can browse them by Googling “time management methods 2024,” then pick one and try it for three months. If you don’t like it, Google again and repeat the process. Don’t get discouraged if your first choice doesn’t work for you. Think of it like this: When someone on your team asks how you manage your time so well, you will have multiple methods to share as well as real-life experience using them. And that’s what a leader does. They use they use the intelligence they gather to serve others.

How do you manage your time to optimize your leadership? Please share your tips in the comments.

Under Pressure

At a webinar I hosted recently, there was a bit of time left at the end of the session. I offered to end it and give everyone five minutes of their lives back. With the words barely out of my mouth, all 45 attendees started waving goodbye, thanking the presenter, or dropping off the call. Five minutes may not seem like anything to get excited about, but it can be the difference between a bathroom break before your next call and no bathroom break for three hours.

This made me think about today’s fast-paced work culture. You are working in a high-pressure environment that demands rapid decision-making, maximum productivity, and constant task switching. Every moment counts and the margin for error is minimal. How can you manage your time effectively under these conditions?

What Does High Pressure Look Like?

Tight Deadlines: Perpetual looming deadlines intensify the pressure to perform. When deliverables have short deadlines you have to work longer hours. This both increases your stress and makes it harder to pay attention to tasks that are important but not urgent.

Great Expectations: Your customers continually push you to exceed your regular performance, accuracy, and speed. You have to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously without compromising quality. A work culture that emphasizes competition over collaboration saps additional time as you battle for recognition, promotion, or job security.

Resource Constraints: If you work in an environment where changes in market conditions, technology, or organizational shifts mean you must frequently, unexpectedly, and suddenly adapt to changes, then these disruptions make time management challenging due to rapidly shifting priorities. A lack of adequate resources, like workforce, budget, or tools, forces you to work harder.

How Can You Manage Under Pressure?

Determine What Matters Most: Identify the most critical tasks that have the biggest impact on your goals. Put “time management matrices” in your favorite search engine for suggestions on what technique will work best for you. Focus on high-impact projects so your time is spent on activities that deliver the most significant results. Use time blocking when you need to do deep work. Break down large projects into smaller tasks with realistic deadlines. Once a month reflect on what is working and what isn’t. This helps you continuously improve your time management strategies and adapt to new challenges.

Leverage AI and Automation: Make technology your ally. AI-driven applications can sort emails, schedule meetings, and even draft responses. Automation tools can handle repetitive tasks, like data entry, invoicing, or reporting. Put “automation tools for streamlining repetitive tasks at work” in your favorite search engine for suggestions on what tool will work best for you. Automate routine processes to free up time for more critical tasks that require your unique expertise and decision-making skills.

Use Technology Mindfully: Technology aids productivity. It’s also a source of distraction. Limit notifications from social media, emails, or non-essential apps during deep work. Use noise-cancelling headphones, ambient sound apps, or website blockers to minimize distractions. Set specific times to check emails and messages rather than reacting to them as they come in.

Don’t Do It All Yourself: Effective delegation not only reduces your workload but also empowers your team, builds trust, and fosters collaboration. Delegation is not offloading tasks you don’t want to do. It is leveraging your teams’ skills to maximize your collective productivity. Assess your workload. What tasks are on your to-do list that someone else is better at? Do these teammates have the bandwidth to take on those tasks? Give clear instructions on expectations, deadlines, and the level of authority the person has. Provide the necessary resources and support to set them up for success.

Recharge and Reboot: A well-rested mind is better equipped to handle high-pressure situations. Short breaks help reduce stress and increase creativity. Put “time management techniques for work” in your favorite search engine for suggestions on what method will work best for you. Set boundaries around longer breaks. For example, take your lunch period away from your workspace and do not check your work email. Set boundaries around work after normal business hours too. Emergencies happen, but be discerning. Someone’s poor planning is not your emergency. You have to protect yourself from burnout.

How do you manage time efficiently at your job? Please share in the comments.

Time Keeps on Ticking

Managing your time at work is challenging. A coworker Skypes you and the interruption derails your focus. Checking your phone plunges you down digital rabbit holes. The research your manager assigned you triggers information overload and bogs down your process. The next thing you know two hours have whistled past your ears.

What’s Happening?

It can be tricky to tell whether you’re procrastinating or distracted, so let’s define our terms. Procrastination is intentionally avoiding tasks you need to complete. For example, instead of calling a high-maintenance customer, you choose to check your Snapchat. Distraction happens when external stimuli pull you away from your tasks. For example, your smartphone dings notifying you someone has left a new Snap. Here are some examples of each and what you can do to battle both.

Procrastination

Challenge: You frequently delay working on tasks, even though you know they are important.

Suggestion: As soon as you receive an assignment, visualize how it will look when it is completed. Imagine feeling relieved it’s done, your manager is impressed by your work, and you have another addition to your “Atta Baby!” file.

Challenge: You rationalize to yourself why it’s okay to postpone tasks.

Suggestion: In about 50 words, write down (or type up) those rationalizations then read them out loud to yourself. If you have to explain to your manager why you didn’t complete the task using the 50 words you wrote, will you be embarrassed?

Challenge: You feel overwhelmed by projects so you avoid them.

Suggestion: Avoiding projects does not make them go away. Open up a spreadsheet and put the projects in order according to their deadlines. Reverse engineer each project so you know what tasks have to be done and give those tasks deadlines. Now you have project plans. Calendar the tasks so you are triggered to do them.

Distraction

Challenge: You quickly check your phone multiple times throughout the workday breaking your concentration.

Suggestion: Put your phone on silent and stick it in a drawer. Build breaks into your work schedule. Don’t go more than two hours without one. Commit to only checking your social media on those breaks.

Challenge: The constant barrage of DMs, texts, and emails pulls you away from your tasks.

Suggestion: Silence the notifications on all your communication mediums. Since your phone is already on silent and in a drawer, now turn off the desktop alerts that pop up on your screen every time someone sends you an email or direct message. Schedule 30 minutes on your calendar three or four times per workday to answer all those communications. If you are afraid of making your manager wait for your response, tell them about this plan and that it’s an effort to get your work done more efficiently.

Challenge: Multiple projects have you gathering tons of information. You spend hours sifting through it.

Suggestion: Remember those project plans you made back in Procrastination? When you pull up the spreadsheet to check off the task you accomplished, add the relevant details to it like dates, links to supporting articles, email addresses, any details you may need to bookmark where you are in the project. This information is also handy for quickly producing robust reports. If you feel overwhelmed by the number of spreadsheets you create, keep a list of them with hyperlinks on your desktop for easy reference and retrieval.

Do you lose control of your attention? What do you do to take it back? Please share in the comments.

All the Feels

Does your workplace feel more toxic lately? Behavior once normalized or ignored is now being challenged and more openly addressed. Is there really more recognition and willingness to confront existing issues? Or have additional pressures and rapid changes in modern work environments actually increased their toxicity?

What Is Going On?

The stressors COVID-19 introduced, like remote work challenges and layoffs, heightened feelings of toxicity. Since the end of the pandemic, lots of other factors have surfaced. For example, the accelerated pace of digital transformation, heavier workloads due to short staffing, and a greater emphasis on productivity. Societal issues like economic instability, Artificial Intelligence advancements, and disagreements over national and local politics add to a workplace’s toxicity. The expanding gig economy introduces new stressors, like job insecurity and isolation, which can worsen feelings of toxicity.

Are Workplaces Inherently Toxic?

No, but certain conditions can foster toxicity if left unchecked. The nature of a workplace depends on its culture, management, and habits. Toxicity comes from a combination of ingredients like poor leadership, lack of clear communication, unrealistic expectations, the absence of support systems, and unaddressed conflicts. A workplace culture that rewards open communication, values employee well-being, and practices mutual respect is less likely to be toxic. On the other hand, a highly competitive culture that prioritizes results over well-being can breed toxicity if not managed properly.

How Can You Tell?

High Turnover: A constant influx and outflow of employees suggests dissatisfaction and a problematic workplace culture. For example: Have 28% of your new coworkers left within the first 90 days of their employment?

Low Engagement: Disinterest, lack of self-motivation, cynicism, and minimal participation in workplace activities are red flags. For example: How many people actually showed up for the annual company picnic last year?

Poor Communication: Ineffective communication channels, lack of transparency, and withheld information contribute to mistrust and confusion leading to frequent misunderstandings among team members. For example, in the last week, how many meetings that should have been emails did you attend?

Work-Life Imbalance: Excessive overtime, unrealistic deadlines, and constant pressure lead to stress and burnout. For example: When you ask your manager when a project is due is their standard answer, “Yesterday.”?

Negative Interactions: Bullying, gossip, and cliques create a hostile and divisive atmosphere. Any form of prejudice or harassment, whether subtle or overt, contributes significantly to toxicity. For example: When you go to the break room and your manager is in a whispered conversation with your coworker, do they look at you with startled expressions, stop talking, and leave the room.

Unfair Practices: Favoritism, discrimination, and unequal treatment undermine morale and trust. For example: Are the ideas you suggest in meetings frequently ignored, then a few minutes later someone else presents your idea as their own and it’s considered brilliant?

Micro Managers: Excessive control by supervisors and lack of employee autonomy stifle creativity, lead to resentment, and reduce job satisfaction. For example, if your manager is in the office, do you have to be in the office too?

Both employers and employees have a responsibility to make sure their work environments do not turn toxic. Next week in part two of this series, Toxic Traits, we’ll talk about how employers can ensure a healthy workplace.

Were you ever employed in a toxic workplace? What was your first hint that the culture was toxic? Please share in the comments.

Assess Your Progress

As we quickly approach the end of the first half of 2024, it’s a good time to pause and reflect on how far you’ve come since January. This is part one of four in the series, Stop and Think. For the next four weeks, we will discuss taking a moment to assess your progress and set yourself up for a successful second half of the year in terms of the time, energy, attention, and money you spend on your work. First up, let’s look at how you spent your time.

What Did You Do?

If you are surprised 2024 is almost half over, then you are probably caught up in getting your daily life done. It’s time to stop and celebrate the milestones you reached so far. But reflecting on progress isn’t just about recognition. It’s also about understanding how you got it and using that insight to fuel future endeavors. Reflection should consist of both past and future. From where you are turn around and look behind you. What did you accomplish? Here are some prompts to help you think.

Did you reach a significant milestone? For example: Did you get a promotion? Win an industry award? Secure a significant client?
What was your biggest accomplishment? For example: Did you complete a degree or certification? Did a customer contact your manager and sing your praises? Did you fix an outdated process that saved the organization lots of money?
What lessons have you learned from setbacks? For example: How did your coworkers react when they were frustrated? What affirmations did you tell yourself to make the setback a push forward? What process did you use to analyze your result and pinpoint where the setback began?

What Will You Do?

Now turn back around and look ahead at the rest of the year and consider what more you want to achieve. Look at your answers to the prompts in the last section. How will you build on those insights? Let’s take milestones for example. If your most significant milestone was a promotion, what can you do in the next six months to make management feel really smart for giving it to you? If you won an industry award, how can you use that platform to bring awareness to the great things your organization does for the community? If you secured a significant client, how can you leverage that relationship to include mentoring a junior member of your team?

How Do You Do?

Daily reflections may seem excessive, but jotting down thoughts and feelings can provide immediate insights and allow for quick adjustments. For example: What one thing stressed you out the most at work today?

Weekly reflections help you notice patterns and trends both in your performance and your well-being. For example: What changes would improve your worklife integration next week?

Monthly reflections are good for in-depth analysis and strategic planning. For example: Over the last four weeks, what part of your job did you enjoy most? What were you good at, but did not particularly enjoy? What did you dread doing? How can you do more of the first two and less of the third?

Regardless of the frequency, the key is consistency. What frequency of reflection feels sustainable as well as beneficial for you? Please share what works for you in the comments.