✅ Today’s Checklist:
🤔 Riddle me this: Say me one way and I’m a heavy metal. Say me another and I’m what a good manager does. What am I? (Find the answer on the bottom).
🪜 58% of workers would turn down a promotion if it means after-hours availability.
🧭 Workers laid off from AI-exposed jobs are taking longer to land new roles.
💼 Still stuck on client gifts? These 65 ideas beat another logo pen
👀 309 lbs to 190 lbs in 7 months (without GLP-1s or calorie counting). Meet the Canadian who did it with one app.
A brag book is one running doc of your wins at work: what you did, what changed because of it, and the proof. It sounds a little extra until review season hits and you can’t remember what you did in March (spoiler: a lot, you just didn’t write it down). Keep one, and your self-review and raise conversation take an hour instead of a whole weekend.
And no, your manager isn’t keeping track for you. Engineer Julia Evans popularized the brag document for exactly that reason. We also need it more than most. In one study of more than 3,000 people, women rated their own performance 25% lower than men did, even after scoring higher on the same test. A doc full of receipts makes it a lot harder to sell yourself short.
Good news: AI does the heavy lifting. Use the tool your company approves, swap names for roles and copy these in.
Start from zero
“Interview me about my work over the last three months, one month at a time. Ask one question at a time about projects I finished, problems I solved, time or money I saved, and praise I got. For each win, write down what I did, what changed and where someone could see proof. Don’t add anything I didn’t tell you.”
Blanking on a month? Screenshot your calendar and ask what you were up to.
Find the number
“This win needs a number: [paste it]. Ask me about before and after, and if we can’t land on a real one, help me describe the result in words.”
Make it a Friday thing
“Here’s what I remember from this week: [quick list]. Ask me up to five questions, then give me bullets for what I did, what changed and any numbers.”
Five minutes, tops. Bonus: making progress, even small wins, is the biggest boost to a good workday.
Turn it into your self-review
“Using my brag book, draft my self-review for these questions: [paste them]. Lead with results and flag anything still missing a number.”
Share it before review day
Don’t save the good stuff for one meeting a year. Every couple of weeks, send your manager a three-line note: “Quick update on what moved this month: [win], [win], [win].” No direct reports? Send it to whoever decides what you work on next. Nobody can discover you if you’re the only one who knows what you did.
Most workplace violence prevention training gets clicked through at 2x speed and forgotten by lunch, which is a problem when the whole point is recognizing a warning sign in the moment.
Traliant’s new course, The Watch, plays like a TV series. It follows two security officers over a single shift while employees weigh in on how real concerns should be handled, so the lessons arrive as decisions people remember.
It’s written and reviewed by Traliant’s in-house attorneys, and it’s a smart look if you’re planning 2027 training around California’s evolving standards and New York’s requirements.
“My biggest challenge is I get into fear and then rested procrastination. I would love to hear any hacks that you have for showing up unapologetically and kicking ass.” — Nicole
Fear tends to show up right before the things that matter most to you, and procrastination is how it talks you into standing down. Psychologist Tim Pychyl calls procrastination an emotion regulation problem. We put a task off to dodge the anxiety or dread attached to it, and the relief feels good in the moment. Then the task is still there, plus the guilt. So the fix starts with the feeling instead of the calendar.
Name the fear and put it on paper
Say it out loud first: “I’m anxious about getting this wrong.” Naming a feeling takes some of the charge out of it. Then try Tim Ferriss’s fear-setting exercise. Write the action you’re avoiding at the top of a page and make three columns: define the worst that could happen, prevent (what would lower the odds), and repair (how you’d fix it if it happened anyway). Most worst cases turn out to be survivable, and ten minutes is enough.
Decide when you’ll start before the day begins
Vague intentions lose to fear. If-then plans tie a specific cue to an action, and people who make them follow through more often than people who only set a goal. Try: “If it’s 9am Tuesday, then I open the proposal before I check email.” You decide once, so you skip the negotiation with fear in the moment.
Shrink the first step and let it be ugly
Pychyl suggests focusing on small tasks that lead to the finish instead of staring down the whole project. Write one terrible sentence. Draft the email subject line. Set a ten-minute timer and give yourself permission to stop when it rings. If the big task still feels impossible, knock out a five-minute win first to build momentum.
Make starting easier than avoiding
Remove friction the night before. Leave the document open on your screen, lay out whatever you’ll need, and put your phone in another room. Schedule the scariest task for your sharpest hours instead of whatever slot is left over.
Separate real rest from hiding
Rest is a need, and it also makes a very respectable hiding place. Here’s a test: after you rest, do you feel restored, or are you still dreading the task? Real rest has an end time and leaves you recharged. Hiding leaves a low hum of guilt. Schedule your rest on purpose, whether that’s a walk, a nap, or an evening off, so you can enjoy it without the to-do list staring at you.
Be kind to yourself on the days it doesn’t work
Self-blame fuels the cycle. Research from Fuschia Sirois found that people prone to procrastination tend to have lower self-compassion and higher stress. Missed a day? Say what you’d say to a friend, then take the next small step.
Bring in backup
Tell a friend what you’re starting and when you’ll report back. Book a co-working session with a colleague on video. And if fear keeps winning the same fights, online therapy can help you work through where it comes from, which beats white-knuckling it every time.
Showing up unapologetically is a practice, and every small step you take while scared counts as a rep. Kicking ass is what happens after you start.
You already ask Claude or ChatGPT to draft the follow-up email. Now it can find the person to send it to.
Connect Apollo and type what you need in plain English, like “VPs of marketing at fintech companies in Texas.” Apollo pulls matching contacts from its live database of 240M+ people across 30M+ companies, right inside your chat.
More than 600,000 companies use Apollo, and there’s a free plan, so your first AI-built list costs nothing.
🛋️ Tried therapy once and it didn’t click? BetterHelp lets you switch therapists anytime.
👉 Learn the little-known way writers earn $1,500 for two-page stories. Download the guide now.
📅 Big meeting or deep-work day? Let this career horoscope calendar pick your power days
🤖 Part plushie, part chatbot, the ropet KAMOMO AI pet is the gift that talks back.
Quick note: our BetterHelp shout-out is sponsored, and we will earn a commission if you sign up. Thx for helping keep TA free!
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Work Wisdom of the Week:
“Don’t wait to be discovered – document your impact and ask for the seat.” A mentor told me that early, and it reshaped my career. I track measurable outcomes, share concise updates, and propose next steps. That habit keeps me focused on value and has accelerated my move from Operations Manager to Director.”
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Glory V. Bruno, Director of Operations |
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