Tracking Your Work Experience With Data Part II

In my first blog post, Tracking Your Work Experience With Data, I shared simple ways to track the things that are important to you at work over time. Once you have the data, you can identify trends and determine which area you want to focus on improving. The idea is to take actions and do things that are in your control.

Note: Even if you haven’t been tracking data for the last few months, you can still follow the steps below to make changes at work. You could review my first blog post and do a quick inventory of your current situation in some areas of work, or maybe you already know where you’d like to focus.

Look at the Data and Pick an Area

Once you’ve been tracking data for a few months, you can start to sense how things are looking and what you’d like to change. When you look at the data, is there any area that stands out the most to you? Or is there a place where there is a significant mismatch between what you have scored over time and where you want to be?

Dig Deeper

Before you start problem-solving and coming up with solutions, you may need to dig a little deeper to understand why those scores are different from what you would like. For example, if your scores for feeling stressed are consistently high, can you pinpoint a few things that are causing that stress?

For instance, maybe you’re working a lot of hours, and that’s leading to the stress. Identifying these factors will help you come up with solutions in the next section.

If necessary, take time to write down what could be causing the scores.

Brainstorm 

Now you can start to brainstorm some ideas to help improve one area. Use what you pinpointed above to help you come up with ideas.

Think about the following: What are 3-5 things you can do right now to improve one of those scores?

You can brainstorm anything big or small. Take time to think about things that are in your control. They can be one-time actions or small steps you could take over time to improve the scores.

Examples to help you brainstorm:

• Conversations you can have

• Requests you can make

• Boundaries you can create

• Initiatives you can take

• Projects you can complete

Bucket these into one-time changes and small, ongoing changes you can make over time.

Example

Area: Am I Challenged at Work?

One-time:

• Ask to take on a new project.

• Have a conversation with my manager to make them aware that this is missing for me and brainstorm some ideas together.

Ongoing:

• Teach myself a new skill that I could use in my job.

• Meet regularly with a mentor to see if they have ideas for me.

Create an Action Plan

Look at your list and pick two actions to work on: one that is ‘Ongoing’ and one that is ‘One-time’. Then plan and schedule the actions into a system that works for you. Share with others that you are doing this to create accountability and momentum.

Keep tracking the data. See what else you can do to improve your work situation. Small actions can pay off. If nothing seems to work over time, it may help to talk with a friend, therapist, or coach.