Journaling your workdays can be extremely beneficial in several ways. Many high achievers such as Oprah Winfrey, General George S. Patton and artist Andy Warhol all used their journals to reveal areas in their careers and life that need more attention.
The four main reasons for keeping a work journal are:
- Focus
- Patience
- Planning
- Personal growth
Keeping a journal requires you to focus on your strengths and the activities that bring you the greatest joy. This allows you to evaluate where you are most engaged and therefore most successful in the workplace.
Taking a few minutes at the end of your day to reflecting on your workday you will notice key events that stand out to you and how they affect your inner work life. Along with that the journal then allows you to identify the progress you made that day.
Journaling provides a sense of patience, sharpening one’s ability to plan. Writing requires us to think through the why’s and how’s and reminds us to articulate the next steps.
This provides us with a deeper level of thinking through our process and helps us answer the difficult questions of “why”, “how”, and “why not”?
Answering the difficult questions naturally reminds us to articulate the next steps moving forward. It is difficult to look back without also looking forward, and the next step becomes easier to see.
Keeping a journal serves as a permanent record of our progress. Success can be quickly forgotten, and when it is, it becomes easy to get frustrates with our pursuit.
There are times you will feel as if you have not accomplished anything despite all the invested effort. It is helpful to look back on your journal to remind yourself of the past successes in your career.
Journals are not only useful in the workplace, but even private journals provide accountability. Our past success and perseverance compel us forward, as we can see how far we have come, how much we have left to accomplish, and why giving up would be foolish.
Journals are an extremely helpful tool to outline your accomplishments and provide a reference to look back on.
This is an extremely beneficial exercise that anyone can do to improve one’s productivity and focus.
