Be Excellent at Your Job

80% of being excellent at your job is just being organized and following up.

That's it.

Just be the person who remembers. Checks in. Has lists. Has easy-to-follow templates, recaps, notes, etc. Sends stuff out proactively so others know they're on top of it (even if they're not always fully on top of it 😜)

The person, for a given scope, is the best person to get the answer from quickly because they're consistently organized.

It's a cheat code that can be used whether you're 1 week into a job or 10 years into it.

I've worked across energy and tech and the best people I've worked with are just super organized and they follow up without being reminded.

The best I've seen (across Shell, Google, Deepmind) rise not by being the loudest, but by consistently organizing, documenting, communicating, and circling back.

It's low effort and high ROI. All it takes is consistency and repeatable frameworks and processes (more to come on this in another post.. stay tuned ⏰ ).

Want to up-level in a week?

👉 Don't just organize the meeting: own the agenda, notes, and follow-ups

👉 Don't just write stuff down on a doc: create a table with notes, dates, and tag people so that everyone gains clarity

👉 Don't just say you'll get back to someone: put in a cal reminder

👉 Don't just let people schedule stuff on your cal: put everything you need to do down yourself and control your own time (think of this as a "scheduled to-do list"

👉 Don't just save stuff in a file or drive, organize the hell out of it (folders, sub-folders, sub-sub-folders)

👉 Don't just reinvent the wheel for every task: create repeatable, scalable processes

Decluttering the way you work, declutters your mind. When your mind is decluttered, it provides you the focus to execute exceptionally well.

Others will notice it and so will you.

Stay organized. Follow up. It's what separates excellent from average.