Use this to remember your wins from Q1


HAILLEY GRIFFIS

Happy Monday 🌞

If you joined recently, hi 👋 I'm Hailley. I've always created systems for my work (as a Marketing leader at Buffer) and life (as a remote worker and mom of two) where I can stay productive, calm, and organized.

This week, we are talking about one of my favorite systems and resources — creating an accomplishments list.

It’s (somehow already) the end of Q1, and now is an excellent time to start tracking your accomplishments for this year if this isn’t already a practice that you have.

I started this practice years ago because it’s so easy to forget what you worked on. The accomplishments list is a super simple way to remember what you worked on and then easily access that information if you need it in 1:1s at work or during performance reviews.

To make keeping an accomplishments list a light lift for myself, I:

  • Set up a weekly reminder to add accomplishments to my notes. (Yes, weekly. My memory is short these days.)
  • Add a few lines with links to relevant conversations or projects to a dated list.

That’s it!

When I need the information, I have a document I can work from. It’s not perfect but it doesn’t need to be, it just needs to be in a format I can work with when I need it.

Here’s a more detailed post about how I make performance reviews manageable with the accomplishments list.

I hope you have a lovely week ahead. As always, feel free to reply if this sparks any thoughts or questions.

I hope you have a lovely week ahead. ✨

See you next week,

Hailley

P.S.: If you want more lists, I also keep a Positivity Folder where I keep screenshots of the compliments and kind words people have shared with me at work. I wrote about it on LinkedIn here but it’s a simple practice that can also help with performance reviews.

🔗 A few links

  • Every piece of advice in this article — 21 Powerful Life Lessons From My Mentor (George Raveling) — is excellent, but I specifically loved “Become the go-to.” The idea is that he invented a role for himself, something that was overlooked or not addressed and he became the go-to for that role. It’s a strategy for anyone to become indispensable.
  • I recently had the chance to pay a candidate to work with us at Buffer for a day as a part of the hiring process. It was new, different, and a blast. Read about it here: We Paid A Candidate To Spend A Day Working With Us, Here’s How It Went
  • Unlike many other companies, Buffer has never discouraged teammates from having side projects — we celebrate it. Which leads to a team with a ton of side projects. Here’s an updated list that I find quite inspiring — 35 Side Projects From The Buffer Team.

📚 Currently reading

👋 Come join me on Threads or Bluesky if you use either network. I’ve been really enjoying both of them!

That's all for this newsletter! Thank you so much for subscribing. Reply anytime you want to chat. ✨

I'm happy to offer my writing and this newsletter for free, but if you're so compelled, a cup of tea is always appreciated! ☕️

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Hailley Griffis

A long-time remote worker, career growth enthusiast, and personal systems fan, I juggle working full time as Buffer's Head of Communications and Content, running a podcast about creating purposeful workflows called MakeWorkWork, and I write and update what I learn on my website and newsletter.

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