5 takeaways from 3 years of being a working adult
Some lessons and reflections about work at an individual level
In January of 2021, I graduated from college and entered the working world.
Over the last 3 years of working full-time, I’ve learnt a lot and here are my 5 biggest takeaways about being better at “work”:
1. Find the system that works for you, work on it, but remember not to get caught up over-optimising
You are going to come across a million different ways to manage your tasks, enhance your productivity, and make the most of your time. For me, I’ve found that a mix of using Notion and its featureset to manage my tasks and workflows has worked best for me.
As a result, I’ve built a system around it that runs really smoothly and working within it everyday actually brings me joy. However, I often get caught up in the process of constantly over-optimising and this can take away from the most important part of the process: actually working. As I’ve progressed in my role, tracking each task has taken away from me being able to see the big picture and understanding how each component needs to fit in the system.
This year, I’ve been focused on simplifying my workflow and thinking more about how I can construct systems that run on their own through automation or delegation. From there, I’ve been directing my attention to figuring out the best ways to maintain those systems, carve out time for special projects, and most importantly, to think strategically. The way this has worked best for me is consistently blocking out time on my calendar to work on a specific bucket of tasks in each block. In addition, I make sure to leave in enough free time to handle any emergent tasks and more importantly, keep my headspace clear.
2. I wish I read this medium piece in 2021
This piece is absolutely incredible and is a must-read for anyone looking to understand what high performance looks like.
To sum it up in one phrase: make yourself helpful.
If you can elevate the way you approach problems and come to your team with solutions that are already in the process of being implemented, you will become one of the most valuable members of your team and with sufficient documentation, I have no doubt that you’ll have any trouble securing a raise or consistent growth from job to job.
As someone who now manages small but multiple teams in different aspects of the business, I cannot tell you how much easier it makes my life when someone takes initiative to go the step further and fill in the gaps accordingly. Even when they don’t get it right, it instantly becomes a learning experience and an opportunity to grow.
It’s also made it abundantly clear what A level talent truly looks like and who has it.
3. 90% of white collar work is communication and communicating about work
One of the ironies I’ve discovered about white collar work is that the most impactful but honestly, meaningless work you will do is communicating what exactly you are working on.
Increased visibility helps buy-in from stakeholders and affirms them that work that needs to be done is getting done. At the same time, these emails often go unanswered, unread, or are buried at the bottom of an inbox.
Despite this, I do think that learning to communicate efficiently and effectively goes such a long way and I wish that was stressed more in school.
My biggest tips are to:
- include your main point and why it matters close to the top. Don’t bury the lead!
- Use bullet points and headers where you can
- Each idea gets it’s own paragraph and no more than 3 sentences to an idea
- Always highlight the next steps and guide whoever is reading your email towards the right next step.
4. Everyone’s definition of work-life balance is different.
For me, work-life balance is less about not answering emails after work and more about knowing when I can take some time to myself.
Being in an early startup, I wear many hats and occasionally, that means 24/7/365/even on a holiday client support. I don’t see myself doing this forever but right now, I do understand that it’s an important part of my job.
However, there are also moments on a random Thursday afternoon where I have more time than expected & could probably get a load of laundry done or meal prep for the weekend. I’ve learnt to seize those opportunities and take the chance to breathe when I can because I know I may have to call it in on a weekend in the near future.
5. Understanding Personal Finance makes getting paid much more meaningful
After you receive your first few pay-checks, there was this “is this it” feeling that swept over me and I began to worry about how I would go on to do this for the rest of your life.
At the same time, I miraculously also began to dive into personal finance and found creators like Ramit Sethi, Katie from Money with Katie, and Chelsea from the Financial Diet. I will never stop singing praises for “I Will Teach You to be Rich” and think it’s a must read for everyone.
This opened my eyes to what I could potentially do with my income that was coming in each month and what levers I could pull in aspects of my spending, saving, and investing,
Learning to manage my money more efficiently and more importantly, spend money in a conscious way that aligns with my goals completely changed the process of getting paid. When a new month rolls around, I get excited for my automation system to go for another spin around and for me to step closer to my goals.
As far as my financial goals go, I am aggressively saving up for a big set of purchases in 2 to 3 years and to eventually, comfortably take a 2 to 3 year sabbatical within the next 10 years.
I hope this post was helpful and if you learned something you didn’t before, I’d love if you could share this with a friend!