For those who have wondered how to use your best skills more often in your daily work
Here's what happened when I really honed in on trying to use my best skills as often as possible.
Before I left my full-time job in 2022, I really assessed where I was at with it.
I felt like I was doing a lot of work that was good, but not great, while still having to deal with small pieces that I considered bad or unfun. Here's what happened when I really honed in on trying to use my best skills as often as possible.
1. I figured out what my best skills are
It is difficult to target work that uses your best skills as much as possible ... when you don't know your best skills.
The answer can be easy to figure out. Consider writing 5-7 stories of moments from your past professional experiences where you remember being fulfilled ... or happy ... or successful. Set a timer for 20 minutes and target no more than a page and a half or so, and as you flesh out the narratives, re-read your own story and look for action words. (Note: This is an exercise from What Color Is Your Parachute? Worth a look if you're interested in this post.)
Bold the words you find and put them in your best skills bucket. That's a good start.
2. I tried to provide a win-win solution for both me and the company
Truth be told, I didn't necessarily want to leave my company -- in fact, I still contract work with them to this day. But I knew I couldn't keep doing the exact job I was working.
I looked at all of the pieces of my job description, categorized them into great, good and bad buckets, and reworked a new version that would help me do more of the best stuff. In that scenario, I'd spend the most time using my best skills, and the company would get better outcomes because I was motivated and utilizing my best abilities for those tasks. For anything in the bad category, I pitched exploring how those could be moved into someone else's job description who had skills that complimented the work better. (Anyone love organizing historical records for me?)
Since I've already shared I didn't stay in that job, you might have already concluded that the company didn't go for my pitch, but I felt good knowing I tried to come up with an alternative solution that would benefit us both.
3. Roadmap what using your best skills outside of your current company or situation might look like
Since I now knew my favorite skills, I could approach a new reality targeting work that used those specific things ... and say no to the stuff that didn't.
Turns out, there are a lot of places that needed the things I was best at on a regular basis, and when I wasn't obligated to a specific number of hours for a full-time job, I was able to create a customized work week that allowed for those opportunities. Plus, because each opportunity was stand-alone -- one job for one company for a smaller amount of time -- I was able to negotiate how much I was paid for each individual job.
As a result, I've replaced my full-time income working 12-20 hours per week on average over the last two years ... all while using my best skills more often.