How Writing Can Save Your Career

Are you stressed out at work? Dealing with a chronic problem—or problem person? How do you handle it? Many people go home and try to escape: turn on the TV and zone out; have a glass of wine and zone out; log on to Facebook or Pinterest and zone out...you get the idea. Or maybe you do the opposite: obsess about your work and turn the situations over and over in your mind, particularly when you’re trying to sleep.

If your traditional solutions aren’t working anymore, why not give writing a try? If you don’t write often you may be surprised at how powerful a medium writing can be. In fact, you may find that once you start writing, you won’t want to stop. You may find that you have to make changes in your life. You might even have to take action on something you previously tolerated. And-- you might even find yourself happy at work.

Writing prevents you from hiding your emotions— and hiding from your emotions. When you write, emotions tend to surface. You might be surprised at what shows up on the paper. Writing won’t solve your challenges immediately, so give yourself time. Each of the 5 techniques requires you to write about the same topic several times. As the days go by and you process the situation, you may find your feelings change and new solutions emerge. The purpose of this type of writing is not to get advice from others; it’s to open yourself up to the intelligent voice within; your own voice which will help you make the decisions you need to make.

Intrigued? Let’s get started.

First, decide on your writing medium. Writing longhand or on the computer is up to you. If you prefer writing by hand, a pretty journal or a basic spiral notebook will work. If on a computer, create a Word doc you can go into each day to add to your writing.

Second, make sure your writing stays private. You are writing for yourself, not anyone else, and it’s important that you not censor yourself. Since this writing is not meant to be shared, you certainly don’t want it “discovered” by a nosy coworker or relative. Don’t leave your journal at your office and certainly don’t store your writings on an office computer. (In general it’s best to write when you're away from the office.)

Finally, write about what happened (events) as well as your feelings. Be sure to include how you felt about the situation at the time and how you feel about it now. Try not to edit your writing; it’s more important to get the events and the emotions down. You can clean it up later if you need to.

Now you’re ready to start. Review each of these 5 techniques and decide which one you’d like to try:

1. If you’re troubled by a specific situation, write a page or two about it. Be sure to include what happened as well as how you felt about it at the time and how you feel about it now. Once you’re done writing, put away your journal. You don’t have to solve anything; you’re just focusing your attention. The next day, open your journal, and without reading what you wrote the day before, write about it again. Do this for 3-5 days, then stop and re-read your previous stories. What has changed? Are you describing things differently? Do you have more clarity? How do your emotions compare from the first day to the most recent? Have solutions started to appear? Do you want to keep writing about this incident or are you ready to move on— regardless of whether you choose to take action or not.

2. Are you struggling with a thorny people-problem? Write about the situation, and then try writing about it again, but this time from someone else’s perspective. When we’re under stress, we tend to hyper-focus on our feelings and our perception of the situation. Try writing about the situation from the point of view of another person (your boss, colleague, or even someone from outside your office). A 2003 study by Campbell and Pennebaker found that viewing a situation from others’ eyes is highly beneficial.

3. If you’re struggling with feelings of dissatisfaction or lack of meaning related to your work, consider identifying your most important values, and then writing about how your actions that day demonstrated those values. (This webpage from Mindtools provides a comprehensive list of values.) For instance, perhaps you list “autonomy” as a value: how many times during the day were you able to work on your own and be responsible for yourself? Or were you micro-managed? Perhaps you value “creativity”: when during the day were you able to be creative? How about “teamwork”: do you value being part of a team? When did that happen during the day? Writing about your values and how they show up at work will help you identify what parts of your job are and aren't working for you. You may discover a new appreciation for your day—or you may find it’s time to find a different job. Perhaps there’s an in-between solution where you seek opportunities each day to live your values. (Many studies have shown that writing about values in general has been shown to improve, among other things, subjects’ levels of achievement, happiness, and feelings of connectedness.)

4. If you want to focus on the parts of each day that are working best for you, write "What Went Well" at the top of your page. Then each day, for as long as you wish to continue the exercise, jot down as many positive aspects of the day you can recall and then select one to describe in greater detail. For instance, you might write: had a great meeting with X, went to lunch with Y, made the sale on the Z property, etc. Then perhaps you would select “made the sale” to write about and describe how you made that happen—what obstacles you overcame, what personality traits you used, how you succeeded, etc. By focusing on what worked during your workday you will start to develop an appreciative eye while identifying what’s important to you.

Career Essential Reads

A Surgeon Puts Down the Scalpel

To Get Ahead at Work, Work on Your Relationship

5. Do you need to escape even if only in your dreams? Create a fictional new job— start writing the story of the job you would like to have. Make it the best work of fiction ever. What’s your new job title? Who is your employer—or are you self-employed? What does your work look like? How does your day start? What are you doing? Where are you? Who are you working with? What makes this job the best job you could have? Try writing about this for several days—each day write a new one, keep expanding your ideas, and don’t review your previous day’s writing. After a week or so, take a look at all the “jobs” you have created. Is there a theme? Are they all following a certain pattern? Can you connect the realistic elements with your current employment or are you starting to discover a new career? This new story might remain in the world of fiction or not. It's up to you.

©2016 Katharine S. Brooks. All rights reserved. Find me on Facebook and Twitter.

Picture credit: Fredrik Rubensson “Diary Writing” Flickr Creative Commons.