How (and Why) to Keep a Work Journal
You probably have a personal journal and a planner, so why add a separate work journal to the mix? The thing is, while you’re at work, you’re likely focused on your to-do list. That is, you’re focused on your company’s success and not your own success.
A lot of times your success is aligned with your company’s success, but not always. For example, when it comes time for you to ask for a raise, apply for a promotion, or apply for a job at another company, your work journal (or career journal or professional diary, if you prefer) will be an excellent resource. Using a daily work journal can help you keep track of your daily activities and achievements, making it easier to showcase your contributions.
What Is a Daily Work Journal?
A work journal is a specific notebook in which you reflect on, journal about, track, and plan for the entire scope of your professional growth. It goes with you from job to job as you get promotions, change companies, experience setbacks, and find new opportunities. Additional features such as the ability to add media and use editing capabilities in a digital work journal can enhance your organization and productivity.
How to Set Up Your Work Journal
As much as we adore paper journals, this is an excellent opportunity to use technology to your advantage and consider a journaling app.
Set up your journal with your personal email address. Even though it’s about work, this is your personal journal, and you don’t want to keep it on a work computer or use a work email address—you want to be able to continue it seamlessly at your next company, if you get a job somewhere else.
A smartphone app makes this convenient and portable. You can refer to it at work or at home when you’re updating your resume. And the option to search your journal could come in very handy.
Consider using Google Drive as a cloud storage option for syncing and organizing your digital journal entries. Or there are journal-specific services like Penzu you can check out.
Obligatory Reminder
This probably goes without saying, but if you’re in a position that deals with secret or proprietary information, don’t put that information in your work journal, just to be safe. This is about you, not the content of your work.
What to Write in Your Work Journal
Think about what will benefit you the most in the long term as you keep your work journal. Consider including some of the following options.
Your work journal doesn’t have to take up a lot of time or energy on an ongoing basis, but you will be glad to have it when you’re writing a cover letter for a new job or applying for a promotion. You do great work in your career—make sure to represent yourself the way you deserve! Additionally, ensure your attention focuses on assessment and planning for professional growth.
Tip: Keep track of dates in all of your entries. It’s amazing how quickly dates and timelines get fuzzy.
Keep a running list of successes
Have you ever looked back over your year at work in order to prepare for an annual review, only to find that you can’t really remember what you did eight months ago? That’s where a running list of successes can be a huge advantage!
Make it a practice to regularly jot down a few words about something you learned, a good piece of feedback you got, a measurable success you had, a good conversation or fun brainstorming session, or whatever else you can see as a success—large or small.
You can use it your list of successes to build your argument for a raise or promotion, add specifics to your resume, and even just remind yourself how great you are when you’re feeling stressed out.
Set and track Future goals
The idea here is simple: Set an achievable work-related goal and track it to completion. (We have some downloadable goal and habit trackers if you need one!)
In practice, this could get a little more complicated than that. Some employers may set a goal for you or have you set a goal and track it using their software or other process. And of course that’s wonderful! It means your goal will be aligned with the company’s goals—and having some accountability in terms of your coworkers knowing about your goal and cheering for you can be a huge benefit.
Following best practice, setting and tracking goals should be based on evidence to ensure the most effective methods are used.
But, you may want to set a personal work-related goal that isn’t dictated by your boss. For example, perhaps you want to set an interpersonal goal (get to know more people on the sales team) or personal productivity goal (take a time management course or read a book on leadership). That may or may not be something you want your entire team to be following up with you about—or even know about.
Keep Your Own Records
And, while company goal-tracking software can be inspiring and efficient, it isn’t yours. If there’s a tracking method out there that works even better for you, go ahead and use it in your journal. But even if you’re just copying information over every so often, do it; it’ll be there for you when you move on to another company.
Journal Your progress
Sometimes it’s nice to have a space to work through your ideas or roadblocks in journal form. No one will see this except you!
Try free-writing through some of your ideas. Set a timer, write your topic at the top of the page, and just start typing out your ideas as they come. Don’t stop, don’t edit, and don’t worry about what it looks like. Consider different angles as you go, and let your ideas flow into each other. After the timer goes off, you can pull out the pieces you need and organize them.
And if something is frustrated you, your journal can be a cathartic and, importantly, secret way to vent (it has a password, right?).
Keep track of feedback
Feedback is one of the best gifts a coworker or customer can give you! Write down feedback and treasure it.
Scientific evidence supports the use of feedback for professional improvement, highlighting its role in enhancing performance and maintaining high standards.
Keep your feedback list current so you can use it in annual reviews, job interviews, and to psych yourself up for that big presentation.
In addition to receiving and enjoying feedback, there are two more challenging things to use this section of your work journal for: asking for constructive feedback and providing constructive feedback.
Ask for Feedback
You can find more about how to ask for feedback here, but here’s the deal: We know it can be scary. Be purposeful, be specific, and be vulnerable, and the results will likely be incredibly valuable.
When you get feedback, think carefully about it. Resist the temptation to dismiss it, and come up with some practical ways to act on it. Put them into practice. And make an appointment with yourself in your calendar to check in on your progress in a month (or whatever length of time makes sense for your task). See if you can see improvement.
Note: Take note of positive feedback too. It’s easier to act on suggestions for improvement, but take some time to acknowledge those of your strengths that other people admire too.
Provide Feedback
If you start asking for feedback, someone is eventually going to ask you for feedback. That means they trust you and they think you’re good at your job. Congratulations on having such a positive work relationship!
Obviously, this can also be incredibly scary.
Pay It Forward
But you’re a good coworker and you have a good relationship with this person. Use your work journal to draft up some feedback. Be kind, be constructive, and be positive. In addition to pointing out the specific, actionable ways they can do something even better, give them feedback on what they do really well—you don’t want them to change that! And include ways they might be able to grow if they want to. “I encourage you to join the XYZ committee, because I see you have interest in the area and think you’d be really good at it.”
Keep track of what you learn
What are you learning as you go? Your work journal is the perfect place to take notes on trainings and seminars, make notes on the work-related books you read and podcasts you listen to, organize your conference resources, and write down the fantastic potential learning resources that people recommend.
Your journal can cover the entire scope of professional development topics, ensuring you capture all aspects of your growth.
Plus, you can try some growth mindset journal prompts.
Keep contacts
No one has a Rolodex anymore, right? But hear us out: You’ll want to remember who you worked with and when, especially if you’re looking for someone to ask for a reference. Plus, people are great. You want to be able to keep in touch with them!
Collect Your Portfolio
If your job includes doing anything you would put in a portfolio, such as design or copywriting, clip your best work to your journal as you go. You don’t want to be scrambling during your last week of a job—or worse, after you find out that you’re one of the unlucky ones in a surprise round of layoffs and you no longer have access to them.
Journal Your Thoughts
Finally, use your journal as a journal. It’s yours, so write down your thoughts!
Journaling itself is surprisingly beneficial. Writing down your thoughts and experiences can help you process emotions, track personal growth, provide mental stimulation, and even spark creativity. Additionally, it can be a valuable tool for reflecting on your future career goals and long-term ambitions, helping you to keep your overarching direction in focus.
WRITING Best PRACTICEs
Like anything, practice matters when it comes to writing. That means journaling can help improve the writing you do in other areas of your life!
Using journaling prompts can be a useful tool for improving writing skills.
IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH
Studies are showing that journaling may also reduce stress, improve your immune system response, and even boost your memory. Here’s an article from Intermountain Healthcare about it.
Get a Raise
Here are some journal prompts for you, if you’re looking to get a raise. Consider these questions thoughtfully and write about them until you’re comfortable with them. When you go into an annual review or a meeting you’ve asked for to argue for your raise, you want to be able to speak to these confidently. Good luck!
When was your last raise, and how much was it for?
Go online and do some research. How much does your position typically pay? Do you make at least that?
How big a raise do you want to ask for? Be precise in terms of dollars and percentage.
What are your top five professional accomplishments over the last year?
How have you exceeded your employer’s expectations?
Have you found a new way to save your company money? How much money exactly?
Tell the story of a time you saved the day at work.
List some positive feedback you’ve gotten from colleagues or customers.
What questions might your boss have when you pitch your raise? How will you address them?
Use your answers to practice asking for a raise. Give an explanation focused on your value to the company, and then ask away. Good luck!
Hint: Don’t threaten to leave. If you don’t get the raise, then you can decide whether to look for a new job. Stay focused on all the benefits you bring to your current employer for now.
