If you know me, and especially if you have worked with me, you will know that I write notes for… everything. This is a simple thing I do to keep my brain in check. I think of it as a journal of some sort even documenting how I am feeling just so that if I look back on my notes I get a good sense of how things were.
Today, I wanted to write a quick post on some of my “weekly wrap” writing prompts.
What is a “weekly wrap”? It is a look back at the week to document three things: the general summary of the week, the good, and the bad.
With all of that in mind, my writing prompts are the following:
Pretty simple, yet effective. You see, if I have too many prompts, a tired me (if it was a tough week, the probability is high) would not want to write at all. So I focus on important questions to ensure I write while also focusing on improving anything big or small. Let’s take a look closer.
The week can often be a blur, but what are my thoughts on how things went? Did I feel productive? Did I feel overwhelmed? Was it a roller coaster of a week and a good mix of ups & downs? The point to this prompt is to just get a bird’s eye view of the week and give it a rating.
This is a great prompt to look back on over time to celebrate my wins. If it is something I want to highlight to my manager to advocate for myself (and you all should be advocating for yourselves!), I will usually look back at these prompts for inspiration. But these are the wins that you want to document to show yourself that you are tracking well for any goals that you may have big or small. “I appreciate the small conversations I had in my ERG 1:1s. I think it’s helping me build a network of folks outside of my team, but also a nice break to discuss non-work things.”
It is often easier to think about the negative when writing reviews for things. The same goes for thinking about work to be honest. But, instead of just writing a bad review, I want to make sure that there is an improvement that I can incorporate the next time. “I can probably parallelize more of the blockers I have for this bug I am looking into. Some are just unknowns, not blockers per se. I don’t need to be a hero and solve things all on my own. I can ask for help.” Here I am giving myself a reminder that I can be more effective with my use of time if I work together with folks.
No, this is not another prompt, but really a question in general. What are some good writing prompts that you have?