When it comes to tracking our own performance, most people keep a record of things that are easy to track. If you are already keeping a schedule or punching a clock, then it is easy to keep track of the hours you have worked. If you already keep folders with emails you've sent and received, organized into useful categories, then it is easy to track your correspondence. Maybe there are certain numbers generated by a computer system related to your work: If you are a salesperson maybe you have bottom-line numbers of sales-calls made, conversations completed, follow up materials sent, contracts booked, and dollars received. These are sales numbers that appear in monthly or weekly reports. If you work at a help-desk then maybe you have bottom-line numbers of help-calls received, help-tickets logged, and help-tickets cleared. And so on.

Beyond the many, many things that are now tracked electronically, most people do not keep track of their own day-to-day performance in writing. Meanwhile, most managers don't keep very close track of employee performance in writing either. Most bosses track employee performance only incidentally, when the boss happens to observe you working; or if the boss is presented with your work product; or if there is a big win; or if there is a notable problem. Most bosses rarely document employee performance unless they are required to do so, so they leave no written track record other than those bottom-line electronic reports. The problem is that bottom-line electronic reports of the "numbers" often say very little about the day-to-day actions that you can control.

You need to keep track in writing of the day-to-day actions that you can control. The more you track your own performance in writing, the more power you will have to:
* Seek guidance, direction, on-the-job training, and coaching.
* Identify resource needs and justify your requests.
* Continually evaluate your own performance against the expectations you are agreeing on with your boss every step of the way.
* Help your boss keep track of your successes and anticipate problems and get your boss's help in solving small problems as they occur.
* Use your written records to help you plan your work and adjust your plans on an ongoing basis.
* Use your written records to keep setting ambitious, but meaningful, goals and deadlines.
* Gain more and more responsibility.
* Give a regular, accurate report of your performance to your boss.
* Help your boss link your high performance with increased rewards.