Believe it or not (please do), the adage, “timing is everything” can not only be applied to interviewing and performance reviews but also very practically (and easily) used to your advantage.

What are we talking about?

In the study of organizational behavior (basically psychology for the workplace) the “Primacy Effect” and the “recency effect” tell us that …

People tend to remember and favor events that were either the first or the last to happen.

Here’s a wordier definition for you nerds out there:

Primacy effect: is a cognitive bias that results from disproportionate weight on initial stimuli or observations.

Recency effect: is a cognitive bias that results from disproportionate weight on recent stimuli or observations.

Taking this one step further- one can infer that people, things and events in the middle are often forgotten. Basically, don’t be the gooch. Egh.

Like many business concepts, the concept is simple and even obvious but often neglected or not acted upon. How can we work this to our advantage?

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Here at EvadingMediocrity, we’re all about doin’ a damn good job at work and having a little something on the side to so that you’re continually challenged and doing more than your average dude. Well, here’s a list of things you DON’T want to do in your day job either because they hurt you professionally, limit your growth and learning, or are just plain dumb.

1. Be the guy that does little things well -  A lot of young professionals, at early stages in their careers, are often put in positions or given responsibilities that can be described as “monkey work”. Although there’s absolutely nothing wrong with becoming proficient at these tasks (as boring as they may be) for the sake of understanding the business and being close to the actual work, you never want to get too good at these kind of tasks/work. You always want to focus on the bigger picture, the greater strategy, the business objectives and how yours (and everyone else’s) work fits together. These are the kind of traits that are sought when manager’s promote people. Afterall, if you get too good at the little things, why move you?

2. Talk about how busy you are all the time. – Why? Because everyone else is too. There is an obvious difference between pushing back if you are truly overloaded and bragging about how much work you do, how sleepy you are, or how late you stayed. Trust me, unless you are getting just godly amounts of useful stuff done, no one is impressed. Pretty soon people might think you are overcompensating for something…

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