Brag Document: How to Keep a Wins List for Your Performance Review

A brag document is a private, running list of what you did at work: projects, results, the help you gave other people, the feedback you got. You add to it every week or two, and when review season comes round you write your self-assessment from the list instead of from memory.

It sounds like a small thing. It isn't, because by the time a review form lands in your inbox, most of the year has already gone missing from your head. Here's what to put in one, a simple template, and how to make sure you actually keep it up.

Why memory isn't enough

Software engineer Julia Evans, whose 2019 post made the term popular, puts the problem plainly: if you don't remember everything important you did, "your manager (no matter how great they are!) probably doesn't either". Yet your manager is the person who has to explain to other people why you deserve a good rating or a promotion. "So if your manager is going to effectively advocate for you, they need help" (Julia Evans).

There's a known bias working against you too. HR guidance from the University of South Carolina lists the recency effect among the common errors in performance reviews: "Focusing too much on recent events rather than the full review period". Its advice to managers is to "keep notes or a performance journal throughout the year" (University of South Carolina HR). A brag document is that same journal, kept by you, about you.

What to put in it

Evans' template has a handful of sections (Julia Evans). Adapted for any job, not just engineering:

• Goals for this year. What you and your manager agreed you'd work on. Everything else hangs off these.
• Projects. For each one: what your contribution was, and the impact. Who was it for? Can you attach a number (time saved, money saved, customers served, errors cut)?
• Collaboration and mentoring. Helping a new starter, answering the same tricky questions for other teams, running a training session, writing the notes everyone ended up using.
• Process and documentation. The checklist you wrote, the handover doc, the template that saved everyone an hour a week.
• Feedback. Paste in the thank-you email or the kind message from a client, with the date.
• What you learned. New skills, tools, certifications.

Two tips from Evans are worth taking seriously. First, go back later and fill in results: it's "often important to go back a few months later and fill in what actually happened after you launched the project." Second, include the fuzzy work, the slow, unglamorous improvements that don't end in a big launch. She calls it "the most likely to fall under the radar", and suggests writing down the goal, what you did towards it, and any effects you've seen, even indirect ones.

And if bragging makes you uncomfortable: "you don't have to try to make your work sound better than it is. Just make it sound exactly as good as it is!" (Julia Evans).

A simple template

Copy this into a doc or a note on your phone. One entry per week is plenty.

Week of 12 October

• Did: rebuilt the monthly client report. It now takes 2 hours, not a day.
• Impact: the sales team gets it on the 1st instead of the 5th.
• Helped: walked Priya through the new invoicing system.
• Feedback: email from Sam in operations saying the handover doc saved his week.
• Learned: finished an online spreadsheet course.
• Follow up in 3 months: did the faster report change anything for sales?

The last line matters. Results often arrive weeks after the work, and that "follow up" note is how they make it into your review.

How often to update it

Little and often beats one heroic session. Gergely Orosz of The Pragmatic Engineer recommends a work log where "every week" you record your key work items, and notes that with a log, a self-review "takes less time to do one than without it" (The Pragmatic Engineer). Evans says many people find a few minutes every 2 weeks works best, though she herself prefers one big look back every 6 months or a year. Lattice's advice for self-evaluations is the same idea: "Track achievements year round to make the process easier" (Lattice).

A practical rhythm:

1. Weekly, 10 minutes (Friday afternoon works well): add what you did, any feedback, anything you want to follow up on.
2. Monthly: fill in results for earlier entries, and drop anything that turned out not to matter.
3. Quarterly: group the entries under your goals. This is also a good moment for a short check-in with your manager.
4. Two to three weeks before your review is due: turn the doc into your self-assessment. Pick your strongest five or so items, lead with impact, and keep the numbers.

Using it at review time

When the self-assessment form arrives, you're no longer writing from a blank page. Go section by section and pull the best evidence from your doc:

• Start with the goals. For each one, what did you do and what changed as a result?
• Lead with impact, then detail. "Cut the monthly report from a day to two hours, so sales get it four days earlier" says more than "worked on reporting".
• Use real numbers where you have them. Don't invent them where you don't.
• Include the fuzzy work and the help you gave others. That's often what your manager didn't see.

Evans also suggests sharing a version with your manager before they write their review. It gives them the specifics they need to argue your case (Julia Evans). It's useful well beyond reviews, too: for a pay-rise conversation, a promotion case, or updating your CV when a new job comes up.

The hard part is the habit

Everyone agrees the doc is useful. The trouble is that a Friday afternoon note to yourself is the first thing to go when the week is busy, and a calendar notification is easy to swipe away. Miss three weeks and the gap feels too big to fill, so you stop.

That's where a reminder you can't silently ignore helps. ReminderIt calls your phone at the time you choose and reads your reminder out loud. If you miss the call, the reminder comes to you on WhatsApp instead. You can set reminders up just by messaging ReminderIt on WhatsApp, for example:

• "Call me every Friday at 4 pm: 10 minutes on the brag doc. What did I do this week, who did I help, any feedback?"
• "Call me on the 1st of every month at 9 am: fill in results for last month's brag doc entries."
• "Call me on 20 November at 10 am: review self-assessment is due 8 December. Turn the brag doc into a draft this week."

There's a 7-day free trial with 7 reminder calls (3 if your number is in a country where calls cost more to place). After that, it's one plan at $7 a month (₹299 in India).

For more on keeping your working week under control, see our guides to a weekly review and planning session, an end-of-day shutdown routine, your first 90 days in a new job and keeping professional relationships warm.

The short answer

A brag document is a running list of your work, its impact, the help you gave and the feedback you got. Spend 10 minutes on it every week (or every two), fill in results as they arrive, and start turning it into your self-assessment two or three weeks before the review is due. It counters the recency effect, gives your manager the evidence to back you, and turns the dreaded review form into an editing job.

Sources: Julia Evans: Get your work recognized: write a brag document, The Pragmatic Engineer: A Work Log Template for Software Engineers, Lattice: Tips for Writing a Strong Self-Evaluation and University of South Carolina HR: Beware of Rater Errors.