You see a gap in the system. A rough edge in a process. A doc that doesn’t exist — but really should. So you plug it. You sand it. You write it. You fix what’s broken. You make it better.
You feel good. Because you know it is good. You helped your future self. Maybe even others. And so, you keep going.
You keep doing extra. But eventually, that extra effort starts to feel… empty.
You notice it goes unnoticed. And that’s when the questions begin.
Spiraling
Nobody asked me to do this — not directly, anyway. Should I even be doing it? Does anyone else care that I care? Am I wasting time? Should I have been doing the “real work” like everyone else?
I’ve been there. Honestly, that’s what my whole career has felt like. Even now — a decade in — I still wonder. But I also have something I didn’t before: Some "extra" experience.
So if you’re someone who feels this way — my heart goes out to you. I see you. I feel you. And I’ll bet: if you’re doing extra, you’ve probably noticed others doing it too.
Stabilizing
Here’s what I’ve learned:
- Not everyone will appreciate your work.
- Not everyone who appreciates it will tell you.
- But that doesn’t mean the work is wrong.
Because the better your extra work is, the more invisible it becomes.
If the process works, no one thinks about the doc that made it work. If the confusion never arrives, no one thanks the person who preempted it.
Sometimes, as strange as it sounds, silence is your reward.
If you’re lucky, someone will reach out and say:
“Hey — thank you. This really helped me today.”
That moment? It’s more than enough. Treasure it. Thank them back. The truth is, those signals are rare.
In my case at my current job — after four years of doing extra at Webflow — I might hear a genuine, unprompted out-of-nowhere surprise thank you once a month, if I’m lucky. But I’ve learned that doesn’t mean the work isn’t good. It doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing. It just means it’s quiet. And that’s okay.
(Sidenote: No, I’m not fishing for thank yous — haha. I feel it. Truly. I’m sharing this detail to help anchor anyone who might be feeling the same. Okay, back to the post.)
So if you ever find yourself discouraged — spiraling into doubt, wondering why you spent all that effort on something no one asked for — pause. Remember why you did it in the first place.
You didn’t do it to be seen. You didn’t do it to be thanked. You did it because you saw something broken — and felt compelled to fix it. Because when you fixed it, you felt proud. Not from someone else’s praise — but your own.
That’s what kept you going. Remember the quiet thank you's you received once in a blue moon. Know there are probably more out there. They just haven’t said it... yet.
Standing
So next time you’re filling the gaps, catching what falls, straightening the lines nobody else sees… Do it for you. Do it for them.
And remember: You’re not the only one. Those who do extra usually notice others doing the same. The ones who quietly take care of onboarding docs. Who prep meeting notes no one asked for. Who build tools, templates, or tiny scripts that save everyone time — without ever mentioning it.
You might not have a title for it. Or a line item. But this extra work? It’s holding things up — even if no one names it.
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P.S. If you've noticed someone out there doing extra lately, send them a thank you. They may be spiraling. They may be running on fumes. Your thank you might be the drop they need to keep going. To keep doing extra.