Hello, and welcome to the first episode in a small series I’ve called: What Drives You – And What Drains You? 

Most people I talk to are well into their careers. If you’re anything like them, you’ve had years of serious and hard study followed by years of trying to get into your chosen field and maybe your favourite organization. And at the same time, you may also be starting a family. So, life’s been busy. The days of lounging with your friends over coffee chatting and plotting your dream lives and careers probably seem very distant by now. 

The to do list is long, the meetings are many and there really seems to be no time to sit and contemplate career and life dreams. And you’re a grown-up now, so supposedly, you should have it all worked out, right?

It’s just that, when pressed a bit, many I speak to don’t really feel that they have it all worked out. Career and work just sort of happened. There was – finally - an opening here, and then an extension there. You had wanted to move maybe, but then you were offered to be part of an interesting project and didn’t feel you could reject the opportunity. Or you had your first child and now stability became a big factor. 

And so, life happens. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Often, it’s great!

But if you’re harbouring small feelings of: “I want something more” or: “I can’t continue like this many more years”. Then it’s time to take stock.

And I’m a great advocate for taking stock! And for that, it’s very useful to have some concrete data to work with.

Because you probably have some idea of things you really enjoy – or really dislike. But for many of us, a big part of our days and weeks happen in a bit of a blur. And those days and weeks are actually your life!

So therefore, I want to suggest that you shed some light on those days and start collecting data you can use for your onward journey to create a happier career:

How to Get Started on Project You
1st step is to monitor yourself. Just like you’d monitor an important work project. And if a work project is worth some monitoring and data collection, you should be too. Treat yourself as “Project You”!

Collecting Data for Project You
It’s really very simple – just start with a pen and pad of paper. Or, if you want to get advanced, create an excel sheet or a word document with a couple of columns.

• Now write down, for a full day, what you’re doing about every half hour. Don’t only write work time but include also mornings and evenings. 
  
  You don’t have to write lengthy paragraphs, but just putting in “work” or “meeting” won’t give you much to work with when you’re going to analyse your data later on.
  
  
• This will provide useful information in itself, but you may consider adding a bit of additional info: 
  Next to every half-hour slot – or every activity – you put one of 3 smileys. Either a happy smiley, a neutral smiley or a sad smiley. Indicating whether you were feeling happy at the time, neutral or “so-so” – or unhappy.
  
  
• Writing down everything you do may sound incredibly boring and time consuming – and you’re already busy, right? 
  But first of all, it takes only a few seconds every time you note down for the last half hour. The challenge is to remember to write down consistently, so a tip can be to set an alarm for yourself. 
  My own preferred method is to make a table for myself, print it out and carry the piece of paper around with me. Otherwise I forget. And believe me, you won’t be able to remember in the evening, all the details of what you did in the day.
  
  And it shouldn’t be boring, because this is your life you’re observing...

Find additional show notes at https://www.barbarakandersen.com/happy-un-career-podcast/episode-2/