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The Work Year

Untested career v1
Tools required
Any AI chat; and one running note you keep all year
Cost
free
Setup time
three minutes a month, plus an hour before each review
Source
original (built for this library; guardrails per the TemplatedAI standard)

The Work Year

What it does

Chains six skills into the loop that actually moves a career: record what you do, review it honestly, find out how you're really seen, ask for what that earns, protect your workload while you do it — and, when the answer stays no, leave properly. The whole cycle runs on evidence you gathered before you needed it.

What you need

  • One running note — phone, doc, anywhere — where three lines a month live
  • The six skills: Your Own Review, Get Real Feedback, Ask for a Raise, Decline Extra Work, Raise a Problem, Quit Well

Setup (one time)

  1. Start the note today. Date, what changed because you were there, any number attached. Three lines. This one habit is the difference between a self-review written from evidence and one written from panic on a Thursday night.
  2. Find out when decisions actually happen — the budget cycle, the promotion round. Asking two weeks after the money is allocated is the most common reason a good case fails.

The workflow (per year)

  1. Monthly: three lines in the note. That's the whole maintenance cost.
  2. Quarterly — Get Real Feedback. Specific questions, one project at a time. A surprise in a formal review means this step was skipped.
  3. Before the review — Your Own Review. Build it from the note. Name one real weakness; a review with none reads as unserious.
  4. Ahead of the budget cycle — Ask for a Raise. Bring real market data you sourced yourself. Whatever the answer, write it down the same day; "not now" only counts once it has a date and a condition.
  5. All year — Decline Extra Work when the plate is full, and Raise a Problem when you can see something coming. Both are how you stay effective enough to have a case at all.
  6. If nothing moves after a full cycle of this — Quit Well. Not in anger, and not without the handover that becomes your reference.

Maintenance habits

  • Put every outcome in writing the same day. Memory of who promised what belongs to whoever benefits from misremembering
  • Never bring a pay number you can't source; one challenged figure discredits the whole case
  • Don't save up problems for review season — a year-old concern raised late lands as a grudge
  • Leave on good terms even when they don't deserve it. The industry is smaller than it looks and references outlive grievances
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