How you spend your time defines how people see you

What did you do for work last week? (Heck, what did you do yesterday in your work?)

How you spend your time reflects who you are.

If you look back at your work week, does your time match your true professional identity?

Or, are you a bit freaked out by what you see?

(Meaning, the bulk of your time was spent doing things that aren't aligned to your true professional identity.)

If you answered yes to the first question, then you're doing a fine job matching your work actions with your professional identity. You're in alignment! Now, help the rest of us find or maintain our stride too.

If you answered yes to the second question, what does that say about you?...

• Are you too busy doing other things you don't have time to be yourself?

• Are you compromising who you really are?

• Are you avoiding being yourself?

• Are you letting go of your needs because a project or person demands something else from you?

• Are you clueless and didn't realize you were spending work time NOT being your true professional identity?

REMEMBER: OTHERS LABEL US BY HOW WE SPEND OUR TIME

A couple weeks ago, I started noticing my work time and sense of my professional identity aren't matching up.

If you had observed me or been my coworker, you would have thought I was a "life manager," "property manager," "fixer of things," and "self care activist."

These are a far cry from my true professional identities as an Identity Reframer and Creative Career Disruptor.

Partially, this was because I had to shift focus to deal with unexpected things popping up in my life. It's perfectly normal to pause who we really are to be who we must be for a moment or season.

Yet, if we do this for too long, it causes problems for our own inner peace, sense of self and reputation.

When we spend too much time in our work doing things that are not in alignment with who we are, others assign new labels to us shaped by the work we do.

Perceived identities are created by how other people perceive who we are. People make assumptions formed by their perceptions of our actions, words, promotions, referrals, websites, and personal branding.

Perceived identities feel real to the people perceiving you. After all, what they see is what informs their reality of you.

The only way their truth about you changes is by doing two things:

1. Using the professional identity language about yourself that you want to be known for,

2. and 2) making sure your actions and professional identity language match up.

NOTICING YOUR TIME= NOTICING YOUR IDENTITY

When we press pause on our true professional identity and never press the play button again, things get out of whack.

That's why an "identity time check" is in order.

Identity wackiness can happen at anytime during the course of our career due to a transition, job loss, crisis, desperation, or lack of knowing ourselves.

Suspending our authentic professional identity from being present in our work has dire consequences.

Remaining in an inauthentic, shallow, hollow, or zombie-like version of our professional self leads to identity foreclosure or identity diffusion. (Actual research terms).

• identity foreclosure= (reluctantly) accepting who you are is who you will always be without exploring or acknowledging other possibilities

• identity diffusion= not committing to any identity, stuck in complete role confusion

These aren't healthy states. They mean you've lost touch with yourself, given away your power, and resigned yourself to your situation.

Instead, you can shift the narrative by focusing on how you want to spend your time. This in turn changes who you are, how you see yourself, and how others see you.

AN EXERCISE TO SHIFT YOUR TIME AND YOUR IDENTITY

I'm borrowing this tool from the podcast Taking Control of Your time on Hidden Brain. Psychologist Chelsea Holmes created this Time Crafting worksheet.

I'm adapting her tool to focus it on professional identity while Cassie uses it to help you find your happiness. I think it can do both.

Here are my revised instructions:

1. For one to two weeks, track what you're doing in 30-minute increments during the course of your working hours.

2. Try to be somewhat specific, record "replying to emails," as opposed to being general, like "making phone calls." This way you get a sense of where you're really spending your time and what you're doing.

3. Over the course of one to two weeks, use the Time Tracking Sheet to track both what you're doing and how you're feeling (1 = not at all happy to 10 = very happy, or 1= out of alignment with my professional identity to 10= in full alignment with my professional identity).

4. Then, look at your results. Tally up where you spent your time and how much of it was in or out of alignment with who you really are in your work. Also, notice where happiness and your professional identity alignment overlap.

   1. How can you spend more time doing the things that make you happy AND show the world your true professional identity?

At the end of everyday, how well are you paying attention to what your time says about who you are in your work?