How I stopped guessing whether my work matters

Motivation often clings to the results we are producing. If those results have a big impact on the industry or our goal, motivation becomes even greater.

However, as soon as we create something and the impact is not visible, we start to question our involvement and whether we should continue. If you are not one of those people and have never had any doubts that your work makes an impact, I would really like to talk to you.

I did have those moments, and at some points in my life, they grew stronger. Just when you think that everything is going the way it is supposed to, you see that someone else in your circles made a huge impact. In those moments, I did catch myself thinking, “I cannot tell if my work matters. If I work so hard, how come I do not see the impact?” With those thoughts, I made a few mistakes. I pushed harder and spread myself thin. Do you think impact came after that? Not really. The more interesting part is that it pushed me further from my goals.

Instead, I now set a few parameters that show me progress towards my goal. To give you one simple example, if I set a goal to write every day, my main parameter is the number of words, or the time I spend writing. I set those each week. So every time I sit down to write, I can see how close I am to that weekly goal.

Now the real trap is that I might write 100 words today, 200 words tomorrow, and then wait for the last day of the week to reach my goal. That is not sustainable and it will lead to burnout or abandoning the project altogether. So, if I notice that could happen, I divide my project into smaller milestones and focus on them one at a time. For example, 250 words per day. Sometimes I am strict about it and do not write more than those 250 words. If I reach that goal and still have something to write about, I make a list of those ideas and write them the next day. That is also called the Hemingway bridge. Supposedly, he would stop writing not when he had used all of his ideas, but when he knew he had a lot more to write. By doing that, he would never face writer’s block the next time he sat down to write. Rather, he would know exactly what needed to be written and the writing would start again as if he had never stopped.

Now back to measuring impact. By setting a goal of 250 words per day, every day for a week, I end up with 1,750 words, which is roughly two average articles. That shows me progress and measures consistency, but it still does not show me the impact. If I publish two articles per week, I can see how people react to them, share them, and contact me with their ideas and perspectives. Interactions are the signal that tells me whether my work was impactful.

That brings up another point. You do not have to measure your impact through charts. Getting in contact with people, seeing how they think about your work, and improving your work and your life through those interactions is a stronger signal than any chart.

To keep that kind of impact real and alive, I keep a log of all interactions. In other words, I document comments, engagements, and private messages people send me. Those are an incredible source of fresh ideas and a way to improve my perspectives. And whenever I feel in doubt about writing, or am not sure whether I should continue, I look at that log and see how much impact I have had. It motivates me to keep writing and publishing.

But what if your log is empty? To keep using my writing example, let us say there are no comments, no messages, not a single interaction. An empty log is normal in early stages. During that phase, consistency is the only signal available, so try to lean on it. If you want feedback sooner, reach out to people directly (friends, family, coworkers, even strangers in your community) and test your impact with them. Even if they are not interested in helping you, that response is still information, though that is a topic for another article.

You are probably wondering what the difference is between keeping a log and simply trying to remember. If I did not log those interactions, they would fade from my memory quickly and I would struggle to find examples of how my work is making an impact. How many times have you asked a friend, “Do you think I am making any difference?” and had them answer with several recent examples you had already forgotten? It always surprises you, does it not?

Think of tracking your impact as a friend who keeps reminding you of your influence.