Sunshine.doc

It's time for your annual performance review. Your boss asks you to summarize what you've done over the past year. But last year was like... 12 months ago and you barely remember what you did this weekend.

With crappy or nonexistent evidence of your achievements, good luck getting the raise you hoped for.

Never rely on someone else to get what you want. That's the simple rule behind the concept of professional sunshine.

Sunshine is a document, an email folder, a note, for storing a record of your accomplishments. Complete a big project? Add a bullet to your sunshine. Get a shoutout from your boss? Throw it in your sunshine. Improve a process that helped the business but may not be obvious to everyone else? Write a quick blurb in your sunshine.

It's all too easy to move right onto the next thing. Next thing you know, it's May and all the cool stuff you did in January is a distant blur. Get into the habit of taking stock of all the things you're accomplishing. You may not ever use all the stuff you collect in your sunshine. But you'll be glad you have it for your performance review, your salary negotiation, and updating your resume.

You're doing great work. Don't leave it up to chance that the right people will notice.