It wont take long, because Ive collected my best work as it came out.

And whether or not your work is public, you should do the same.

Youll have a stronger portfolio with less grunt work.

Whatever youre putting out, throw a copy into a folder, bookmark, or note-keeping system.

Do it the first time that a draft makes you proud, or immediately after a project is finished.

And its better to save too much than not enough.

Its still better than sifting through every file youve ever made.

Take photos and video, record audio, forward emails to a separate account.

Most of us cant keep one job from graduation to retirement.

So have a publicly accessible brag file, both as portfolio and blurb page.

Be a little more selective than you are in your private file.

Look for the weakest item in your portfolio, delete it, and repeat until satisfied.

check that the very first item in your portfolio is better than the average item.

(If your portfolio is chronological, add a featured slot up top.)

Ask a friend or colleague to pick the strongest and the weakest items.

You dont need to explicitly point to the praise each time.

Its the work, not the praise, that youre reminding them of.

Those are the bits of praise that even a stranger can appreciate, rather than feedback from just anyone.

Books have blurbs all over them.

Doctors post good reviews online.

Teachers share heartfelt cards from their students.

Whatever your line of work, there is some kind of praise thats appropriate for you to publicly post.

Save it as it comes in.

Browse your own brag file

Sometimes, the person you should probably sell to is you.

you’re gonna wanna remind yourself of what youve accomplished.

Or you should probably re-examine whether youre doing the kind of work that makes you proud.

I sawan old post about tabletop RPGs, and remembered how fun it was to research.

But this time I wanted to actually play a game for a new post.

So I pitched an article onhow to play an RPG with no planning.

In the two years Ive written here, that might be my favorite piece.

And now its in the brag file.