Photo of Terence Eden. He has a beard and is smiling.

Another year over, and what have you done?

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It's really easy to think "I haven't achieved anything this week!" and fall into self-pity.

So, at the start of 2019, I decided to give future-me a present. I started a Trello board called "Done!".

A zoomed out view of dozens of Trello cards.

Each week, I created a new column - "Done 2019-01-04", "Done 2019-01-11", and so on for the rest of the year. Every day, when I'd completed a task, I'd add a new card to the list. Mostly simple things:

  • Emailed Jo about Project X's Q1 results.
  • Meeting with Y Corp
  • Got new badge from security

Nothing too trivial, nothing to heavy. It's not there for me to track my actions, or to store links to important documents, or to formally measure anything. It's just a pinned tab that I switch to every time I feel I've accomplished something.

I used to hate daily stand-ups, monthly 121s, and year-end reviews. But this reduces my anxiety considerably. I've got a little list.

Some of the Trello columns are long and some are short.

Sure, some weeks are busier than others. But when there's objective proof of what you've been doing, it makes 121s, stand-ups, and KPIs, much easier to deal with.

Sure, some weeks are longer than others. And, looking back, the significance of some entries are lost on me. But, damn, I've accomplished a lot - and I'm really proud of 2019-me for being so kind to 2020-me.

I hope you also find it useful.










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3 thoughts on “Another year over, and what have you done?”

What links here from around this blog?

  1. Terence Eden speaking at a conference. Weeknotes: A year at #NHSX

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