Thursday, November 3, 2011

Confidence Builders at Work

Today I came across this article on how to build your confidence at work and it reminded me quite a bit of the 'Imposter Syndrome' session hosted by Maria Klawe that I attended at GHC09.  I think the advice provided can be useful to many people regardless of their confidence level or gender!

My favorite piece of advice was #3 on the list, "Keep Track of Successes", which advises keeping a list of even your smallest 'to-do's during each day and crossing them off as you go.  I like this because it helps me realize how much I do during the day, even if I don't feel like it was very productive, but also because when it comes to setting commitments for the year or doing self-evaluations, I have a lot of data to include and show off.  

One problem, however, is that a million little 'to-do's at 9am can seem overwhelming!  So, sometimes I find it helpful to only write down big items, and if I finish some small ones only include them once they are complete.

Another tip I've learned for particularly daunting days is to leave something small and easy to accomplish for the  end of the day, and quickly finish it.  This way I always leave feeling like I completed something, even if it was the only thing and I am still blocked on everything else.  I like leaving on a positive note, and not like this:

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