Career Advice
The Benefits of Keeping a Work Journal
|
28
I was assigned the task of keeping a “daily well-being journal” for a graduate course last summer. The journal was meant to be kept private and my only deliverable was to reflect on the activity as a whole at the end of the course. My professor asked that we focus on the following questions:
- What events stand out in my mind from the work day and how did it affect my inner work life?
- What progress did I make today and how did it affect my inner work life?
- What nourishes and catalysts supported me and my work today? How can I sustain them tomorrow?
- What one thing can I do to make progress on my important work tomorrow?
- What setbacks did I have today, and how did they affect my inner work life? What can I learn from them?
- What toxins and inhibitors impacted me and my work today? How can I weaken or avoid them tomorrow?
- Did I affect my colleagues’ inner work lives positively today? How might I do so tomorrow?
During the last five to ten minutes of every work day, I would begin to reflect, and without fail, a few key events would stand out that I wanted to iron out on paper. Often, I found myself diverging from the standard questions and addressing issues I was not even aware existed. This tool assisted me in pinpointing communication errors, enhancing relationships with colleagues, and learning to be a better listener.
After the term ended, I found myself opening up the Word document every afternoon to reflect because I thoroughly enjoyed the activity. I found that it improved my awareness and decision-making.
A work-oriented journal is one of the many tools to assist in growing and succeeding in your career. Try it for a week — or a month — and evaluate whether it is worthwhile for you. I found it interesting to read entries from the weeks where I was stressed over a small detail that eventually blew over, or overwhelmed with a new project that in the end, was completed with excellent results. I also realized in re-reading the journal that many of my issues were easily solved with consistent communication and overall teamwork.
The questions I provided above are fairly universal. You can create your own questions that pertain to your industry or position. A key inquiry I added to my own journal was “What’s going well?” Identifying what’s going well at the end of each day keeps me focused on the positive.
Do you keep a personal or work life journal? Do you find it effective? Tell us in the comments!
I've started doing this every day and found that synthesizing the day's findings makes them (1) easier to digest (2) more recognizable when celebration is due and (3) eases my mind of the burden of feeling like I need to remember everything all the time. Love this advice, Madeline!
I typically write down WHAT I did that day, but I should be tracking more! Great suggestions!
A journaling tactic that I do is to maintain a list of all the things I have done really well that week. This has been so helpful in being my biggest advocate in the workplace.
Such great advice! I tend to focus on the small things that may have went wrong during the week but this might help me refocus on the progress that I've made on important projects and what I've learned from my mistakes. I'm definitely going to try this for the entire month of February. Thanks Madeline!
Periodically I like to keep a personal journal. However, I usually don't reflect about work in it, unless it's monumental. After reading this I do see the benefits in doing so now.
I don't keep a formal journal, but I do have a "Future" folder at my desk that I use for ideas, compliments, and articles that I find interesting--anything I want to process when I need inspiration.
I don't keep a formal journal, but I do have a "Future" folder at my desk that I use for ideas, compliments, and articles that I find interesting--anything I want to process when I need inspiration.
I don't keep a formal journal, but I do have a "Future" folder at my desk that I use for ideas, compliments, and articles that I find interesting--anything I want to process when I need inspiration.
I love this idea! I've always kept a journal personally but never professionally. Would be really illuminating, I think.
Madeline, this is such a great article! I think I am going to try it! I write a to-do list and check things off at the end of the day but this will make me reflect more. Thank you for sharing this!
I keep a personal journal where I write everything going on in my life. Work is one part, and I always make sure to write at least a paragraph or two of the days I feel amazing and the days I'm stressed, so I can look back and reflect. I think writing the personal things along with professional helps me understand my life as a whole and how certain things impact other areas of my life.
I had never thought of this but I can see that it would have a huge benefit for decision-making and celebrating your own success.
This is a great idea! I often write down ideas and things I want to accomplish but never write down the events or actions that lead to my ideas. What a great way to gage progress or when one is at a standstill.
I did keep a personal journal for a while when I was working on my own to track negative and positive thinking patterns. I was also surprised when i read old posts on how a small detail could have a huge impact on my mood. It helps to put things in perspective and it was indeed very useful. I will definitely try again focusing more on the work aspect. thanks!
This is such a great idea - a simple and small task that could have exponential effects! Jada I also love your "Future" folder idea for inspiration when you need it most. Love love love!
What wonderful advice! I keep a personal journal in which I might touch on work but not in depth. This will be such a great tool to create goals, problem solve and celebrate successes. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing this Madeline! I shall give this a go. I think awareness is the first step to improving. I'm feeling a tad overwhelmed with everything I want to accomplish this year and I think taking a stepback to see what I've done and how I'm progressing helps in keeping my anxiety in normal levels. Cheers!
What a refreshing approach. I've already begun migrating my tasks from a notebook to a cloud-based solution to become more efficient, but I hadn't considered dedicating a notebook to simply reflecting on my day. Checking things off a list provides me with some level of satisfaction but isn't necessarily the best measure of productivity and I think that will become more apparent as I go through this exercise each day.
Michelle, in response to your comment, I tried to migrate to a fully virtual organizational approach and found it to be less effective overall. There's something thought-provoking and cathartic about actually putting pen to paper and synthesizing your thoughts - something that typing the equivalent into an email field doesn't equally satisfy.
I've only kept a work journal once. It was a requirement for an externship I did, and, at first, I thought it was such a hassle. But by the end of the second week, I noticed good and not-so-good patterns in the way I work. What I love about this piece is that the questions can really help give that brief period of self-reflection some structure, something my own journaling was missing.
This is so ironic! I was going to start journaling specifically about work today but had no idea where to begin! This answers it! I love to journal - but was starting to realize that the topics were all over the place and not really being helpful to making me feel as though I was actually reflecting. Thanks!
Love, love, love this article. I have never been big on journals and haven't had one since high school. But after reading this article and the comments as to how people find journaling helpful, I think it's high time I picked it up again. I have a tendency to focus on negatives I want to fix but I can see how guided journaling can help me highlight the great things I'm doing and want to continue.
Wow - definitely going to give this a try. Any advice from folks who have done this on paper journal vs. Word doc?
This sounds like a great idea. Sometimes writing things down helps me connect ideas and events that might not seem related at first and helps me to look at things from a new perspective. Also, it's a giant record of all your accomplishments, so you can remember what you did whenever you need to boost your resume for a new job, or do an employee self evaluation, etc.
Definitely want to start doing this.
These questions are a great way to frame reflection after a busy work day. Typically my mind is so frazzled that I don't even know where to start. Thanks, Madeline!
I used to keep an excel spreadsheet that I would update weekly about what I had accomplished, big wins, and how I could improve next week. It's a smart way to stay accountable, great article!
Wow, this is fantastic. I'm job searching right now. This could be a great way to deal with the emotional wringer that is unemployment, as well as keep on track with the practical aspects.
I keep a 'lessons learned' journal. I keep them organized in categories for work like legal, marketing, IT Support. This keeps me from asking the same questions twice.