How to make a brag document (step-by-step)

If you’ve ever tried to make a brag document, you probably spent an hour debating the format before adding anything to it.

Google Docs or Notion? Should it include screenshots? Maybe a color-coded tagging system? Is there a template I can use?

The truth is, most people overcomplicate the process.

I wanted to simplify things. This guide strips it down to what really matters so you can start (and stick with) a system that works. Here’s how to create a brag document from scratch.

Step 1: Choose where your brag document will live

Before you start writing down all your wins, pick a home for your brag document. In my experience, the best brag document tool checks these boxes:

Yours (not your company’s) 

Keep it in your own space. Not a Google Drive managed by your company or an internal system that you can’t use once you leave your job.

In other words: If you want to use Google Doc or Notion, create and store it in your personal account, not one associated with your job. Or, if you want to use a tool like Brag Doc, don’t sign up with your work email address.

Ridiculously easy to use

If updating your brag document feels like work, you won’t keep up with it. You need something you can quickly open, add a win, and be done with.

Purpose-built for your brag document

Don’t build your brag document in a random untitled Google doc that you throw all your ideas into.

Whether you use a Google Doc, Notion page, or (shameless plug) Brag Doc, make sure you use it solely for logging and tracking your wins. Otherwise, it’ll become a junk drawer that’s impossible to use.

Searchable and sortable

The whole point of a brag document is to find specific wins, projects and accomplishments when you need them.

You want something that lets you filter by role, data, keywords, or project without having to scroll endlessly.

Portable and long-term

Your brag document will follow you from one job to the next. You need a tool that can move with you. I highly recommend using a cloud-based tool, not a downloaded Word document or notes saved to your computer. 

Think of it like this: If you were to get fired from your job today and they cut off all your access, would you lose your brag document?

So what should you use? 

Here’s a quick comparison of the most common tools people use to create brag documents, sorted by my most to least recommended option (note: they’re all free).

Obviously, I recommend Brag Doc. It’s the only system I've been able to stick with, and we made it specifically to overcome the shortcomings of the other options on the list.

You can give it a try here (it’s free).

Step 2: Set up your structure

Remember, the point of a brag document isn’t just to add your wins. It’s to be able to find and reference specific things when you need them. Your structure determines how easily you can do that.

I recommend my Small, Medium, Big, and Beyond Framework. 

It’s an easy way to sort your wins by scale. From the quiet stuff that keeps the wheels turning to the major highlights you’d brag about in an interview or when you’re trying to get a promotion.

Now that you have the bones of your brag document built, let’s start filling it in.

Step 3: Add your first few wins

This is where most people freeze. Staring at a blank document can be really overwhelming.

If this is your first brag document, start with your current or most recent job. That’s the stuff that’s probably the freshest.

Here's an example of a brag document entry and a breakdown of each point:

1. What you accomplished

Write a clear, one-sentence summary of what you did. This is your headline, so keep it simple and specific. For instance,  “Led the launch of feature XYZ” says more than “Worked on a launch.”

2. When it happened

You don’t need an exact date. Especially since some of your wins might span multiple weeks or months. 

Keep it to the month and year it was completed. Think of it as a timeline marker to see your progress over time. It’s not a weekly to-do list to remind yourself what you did each day.

3. The company or role it happened in

Every win should be linked to a specific job or company. If you’re a freelancer, you can include the client the win was associated with. 

4. Tags

Your tags will help you group similar wins and make sorting easier.

Start with the Small/Medium/Big/Beyond framework, then add more granular tags specific to your role or industry (like “campaign,” “leadership,” or “project management”)

For instance, I work in content marketing, so I have tags like SEO, email marketing, and campaign. But if you work in project management, you might have tags like “automation,” “collaboration,” or “Sprint Planning.”

Don’t overthink it.

You want to make future-you’s life easier when you're prepping for interviews or need examples for performance reviews. You also don’t have to figure out all your tags right now. You can always change things later on.

5. Metrics

If you can quantify it, do. 

Add any measurable outcomes associated with your wins (e.g., “Increased open rates by 23%” or “Reduced support tickets by 30%”). These are great points to add to your resume. 

If you don’t have hard numbers, you can also describe your impact qualitatively (e.g., “Made onboarding smoother for new hires”).

6. Details of what you did and why it mattered

This is where you add context for the win. Include a few lines about what the goal was, what you did, and why it mattered. 

These details are part of what separates brag documents from what you put on a resume. You can add specific context that’ll help you tell the story behind your wins.

This is particularly important when you’re interviewing. A lot of interviewers don’t just care about what you did. They want to know how you did it, why you approached it in that way, and the impact it had.

7. Relevant links or screenshots

If you have proof (a slide deck, Figma file, Slack shoutout, published work), add it. Telling someone what you did is great, but showing the output is even better.

As a content marketer, I use this section to add links to major projects I’ve worked on. For I recently worked on a report. Once it went live, I added it to my brag document with a link to the published piece.

You should also take screenshots of anything that you might lose access to when you leave your job. For instance, when I’ve hit traffic milestones, I’ll take a screenshot of my website analytics as proof.

Don’t worry about getting every little detail perfect. Your first few entries might feel clunky, but that’s normal. You just want to start building the habit of updating your brag document.

After you add the wins for your most recent job, start backdating it as far back as you can remember. The more you add your wins, the easier and more routine it gets.

Step 4: Make it a weekly habit

Let’s be real. 

For the first week or so, updating your brag document will be really fun and exciting. But eventually (typically after 21 days), you won’t be as motivated. At that point, discipline needs to take over.

The easiest way to maintain your momentum is to document your wins as they happen. Ideally, the same day, but at the very least, within the week.

Pick a specific cue that reminds you to update your brag document. It could be Fridays after your last meeting, or right before your Monday 1:1. The goal is to tie it to something that already exists in your routine so it’s automatic, not another to-do you’ll forget.

To make it feel less like a burden, set a five-minute rule. If it takes longer than that to add a win, you’re overthinking it.

But my biggest tip is to set a weekly reminder—Friday afternoon, Monday morning, whatever works for you—and add anything worth remembering while it’s still fresh. 

You can create a recurring calendar event, or, set a reminder on your phone.

The worst system is your memory. When you’re juggling meetings, deadlines, and your day-to-day work, you won’t suddenly remember, “Oh yeah, I should log that win.”

Your brain’s great at solving problems, but not keeping score. Give it some help and set up reminders.

Step 5: Collect kudos (optional, but powerful)

You’re not the only one who sees your wins. Your teammates, managers, and clients do too. The problem is that most of that recognition gets lost before it can make it into your brag document. 

Logistics are usually to blame here. Shoutouts happen everywhere:

• Buried in Slack threads
• Hidden in emails
• One-off mentions during a meeting

The other issue is that a lot of the praise you do get is usually surface-level. People replying “Nice work!” and “Crushed it!” in Slack are great for morale, but not super useful during performance review time.

The best recognition is in context and includes detail. And the only way to get that is to ask for it.

Even the most supportive coworkers need a nudge sometimes. Not because they don’t care, but because they’re focused on their own work. 

As an introvert who’s been historically bad at talking about my own wins, I know how awkward it can be to ask for recognition of the work you’ve done.

However, there are ways to document shoutouts from your team and even ask for them without triggering an anxiety attack.

Here are a few easy ways to start collecting kudos:

1. Save them as they happen

Whenever someone gives you praise in Slack or via email, grab a quick screenshot or copy the message in your brag document. You can create a “kudos” section or tag to make them easier to find later.

They might not always be super detailed, but they add up over time and help shape the narrative of what you’ve done and your impact.

2. Ask for them directly (without it feeling awkward)

When you wrap up a project or hit a milestone, ask the people you worked with for feedback. 

Something as simple as “Hey, could you share what you thought worked well here?” gives people a natural way to reflect without having to outright say, “Hey, tell me how great it was to work with me.”

You can add that feedback directly to your brag document. If it’s associated with a specific project, you can add the screenshot to the win in your brag document. 

For example, say you created an internal wiki for your company. You’d add that as the win, then grab any screenshots of positive feedback you got about it into the same entry, so everything’s easy to find.

3. Use Brag Doc’s built-in Kudos form

Don’t feel like manually collecting shoutouts? Brag Doc gives you an easy way to collect praise without feeling uncomfortable. 

You get a personal Kudos link you can share with anyone. They can submit their feedback or appreciation in seconds. 

You might be thinking, “can’t I just use LinkedIn recommendations?”

The benefit of using Brag Doc instead is that the responses are higher quality than the generic “Jane was great to work with!” comments you see on LinkedIn because of our form. 

We ask for a specific action and the difference it made.

That way, when it’s time for performance reviews or if you’re interviewing for jobs, you can tell more detailed stories about how you’ve helped people.

Each Kudos goes directly into your brag document, and you can search and filter them to find what you need when you need it.

Step 6: Review and reflect quarterly

I’ll admit, I rarely ever stop to reflect on the work I’ve done throughout my career. But keeping a brag document has helped with that a lot.

Once a quarter, review your brag document and look for trends. For instance:

• What types of wins are you logging the most?
• Are there areas where you’re light on wins or kudos?
• Do your wins align with the goals you actually care about?

Reviewing your wins can also be a valuable career planning exercise. Maybe you’ve been taking on more leadership wins lately or fewer creative projects. Those patterns tell you something about where you’re growing (and where you might want to focus next).

Unfortunately, that kind of reflection is tough to do in a plain Google Doc, spreadsheet, or even Notion. So we built reporting into Brag Doc. 

For instance, you can see your most used tags, which show you what areas you’re probably strongest in (and where you’re light). 

You can also see your wins over time to spot patterns in your growth: Are you adding fewer wins lately, or do certain roles show up as your most impactful?

Those insights can guide how you tell your story during reviews and job interviews.

For example, in interviews, focus your narrative around the companies you logged the most wins at. 

And for performance reviews, frame your story around the quarters you were strongest or the key areas you’ve tagged the most.

Step 7: Share it when needed

A brag document is mostly for you. It’s why you can get as detailed and honest as you want. But some people like to share theirs with a manager for performance reviews, and it can be a game changer.

It gives you an easy way to show all your highlights in one place. Your manager probably doesn’t know everything you do. Sharing a brag document with everything you’ve accomplished over the quarter or year makes your impact more visible.

That said, you don’t need to share everything, just what’s most relevant for the situation. 

If you’re doing a quarterly review, focus on small and medium wins—the projects that show steady progress.

If it’s promotion or annual review season, lean into your big, measurable wins—the ones that define your year.

As someone who’s managed people before, trust me: context beats volume every time. A focused narrative lands better than a three-page list. Use your brag document to tell the right story at the right moment.

Ready to build your brag document?

As important as a brag document is for your career, creating one shouldn’t feel like a huge project. If you follow the steps outlined above, creating and maintaining your brag document shouldn’t take more than 5-10 minutes out of your week.

Start with what you remember, even if it’s just a few wins. The habit matters more than perfection. Over time, it’ll be like a reflex—a win happens, and you add it to your brag document.