Every job has two kinds of tasks: hard stuff and easy stuff. This is true for every job that I’ve ever had and every role I haven’t had that I can think of. The hard stuff varies considerably from role to role while the easy stuff remains more constant. Many people focus on the hard stuff while overlooking or failing to complete the easy stuff.
This is one of the most important things you can do to get promoted. Here are a few examples from my experience.
As a software engineer, here are some examples of hard stuff.
- Working 12 hours a day, every weekday
- Fixing a hidden bug that saves the company millions of dollars per year
- Working through the weekend to put out a release
- Discovering a new framework or tool that saves the team hundreds of hours per month
- Taking night school classes to gain new skills for your job
- Discovering and working with the legal team to patent a new revolutionary algorithm
And here are some examples of the easy stuff.
- Calling in to let your boss know when you’re sick
- Shower regularly per your region’s custom. This means every day in the US
- Not lying to anyone involved in your job about anything ever. No lie is too small to cause a chain reaction of problems. Bad news is far less troublesome than inaccurate information
- Following the company dress code
- Completing the tasks that you agreed to do, no matter how menial, or telling your boss right away when you realize that it is no longer possible due to new information
- Showing up to work and meetings on time
- Not making excuses. People want to hear options not excuses
- Signing the documents that HR requests you to complete right away
- Submitting your expense reports on time
If you’re not a software engineer then this entry should be even easier to understand. The top list may only make sense to a software engineer, but the bottom list is almost universal.
I’m not saying that you can ignore the big stuff and still be successful, but do not focus on the big stuff at expense of the small stuff. While being perfect at the small stuff many not compensate for being terrible at the big stuff, it will show your success on the big stuff in a much better light.
When the powers that be at your company chose who to promote and who to fire they evaluate your work as a collection of tasks. While you may have spent a solid month working unpaid overtime to complete that patent, it will almost be canceled out if you blow off calling in when you’re sick and this is an example of very poor value.
The thing to take away from this entry is to focus on value in your career. The stuff in the small list almost always requires a fraction of the effort of anything on the big list. This means that in terms of time invested in your career per payoff at the performance review it is an amazing value. So next time you’re thinking of blowing off a boring HR training, think again. It may be most costly than you think.
