Imposter Syndrome · Primly Community

Trick that actually worked for me: keep a "receipts" doc

numbers_only · 5 replies

I know there's a lot of advice about imposter syndrome that's basically just "feel your feelings" and I don't find that useful. So here's the one tactical thing that has actually helped me.

I keep a running doc called receipts.md. Any time something good happens at work: positive feedback, a metric that went up because of something I did, a problem I solved, a meeting where someone said "good point" and meant it. I write it down the same day. No editorializing, just the fact.

Why it works for the imposter syndrome brain specifically: The IS brain pattern-matches hard on negative events and explains away positive ones ("they were being nice," "I got lucky," "anyone could have done that"). The receipts doc forces you to log the positive raw data before your brain rewrites it.

When the spiral starts, I open the doc. Not to feel good about myself. Just to recalibrate what's actually true.

It's been 14 months. The doc has 83 entries. That's data.

5 replies

growth_gabe

i do something similar but i call it a brag doc and i use it mostly for performance reviews. hadn't thought about the mental health angle. going to start treating it that way too.

ux_uma

the part about logging before your brain rewrites it is key. i've tried versions of this before but usually after the fact, when i'm already in spiral mode. starting same-day makes a real difference.

numbers_only

yeah same-day is the whole thing. your brain gets to the rewrite in like 48 hours. you have to beat it to the punch.

hardware_hugo

Does this work if you genuinely are underperforming? Asking because I worry about using something like this to rationalize instead of actually fix problems.

numbers_only

fair question. the doc doesn't lie. if you have 83 entries and half of them are thin or forced, that's information too. it's not meant to make you feel good regardless of reality. it's just raw data collection so you're working with something more reliable than your anxious memory.