Why You Should Keep a Productivity Journal

Notebook and pen on top of a laptop on a desk

Are you wondering if you should keep a productivity journal at home or work?

Do you want to get more work done during the day and feel good about the work you’ve completed? 

If you can’t remember what you accomplished last week (or perhaps even yesterday!) then you may want to consider keeping a productivity journal.

A productivity journal is a convenient way for you to document and track your progress on a project or assignment.

In this post, you’ll find several reasons why you should track your work efforts with a productivity journal.

Whether you track your progress in a physical paper journal or a digital note taking app, you’ll be one step ahead in your work!

What is a Productivity Journal?

A productivity journal is just as it sounds: it is a journal that contains key information about your ability to accomplish projects, assignments, and tasks.

A productivity journal can come in handy when you’re working on a specific work or personal project.

You can analyze exactly how you spend your time and energy.   

What’s more, a productivity journal can be kept for a relatively short period of time.

It’s a great way to take a snapshot of your work efforts over the course of a day, week, month, or season.

Thankfully, a productivity journal doesn’t have to be anything fancy.

You can use a blank notebook or journal or a loose leaf binder for your productivity journal.

You could even use a text editor or word processing document to record your thoughts.

What type of information can you record in a productivity journal? It depends on what productivity-specific information you want to record and measure.

For example, you could keep track of any combination of the following pieces of information:

  • Month, day, and year
  • Current project or assignment   
  • Completed tasks for the day
  • Minutes/hours spent completing tasks
  • Energy levels before completing tasks
  • Energy levels after completing tasks
  • Methods used
  • Convenient or helpful tools

Simply gather the corresponding data, and record each piece of information on a daily, or otherwise regular basis.

Now that we’ve discussed what a productivity journal is, let’s move on to why it’s worth keeping a productivity journal in the first place.

You have a dedicated space to track and record your progress.

There’s a difference between wanting to be more productive and being more productive.

The two do not necessarily exist in the same space.

If you’re serious about filing more papers today than you did yesterday, or responding to more emails than you did last week, you’ll need to monitor your progress.

Keeping a quantitative record of your accomplishments will allow you to clearly see what and how much you accomplished.

A productivity journal allows you to keep this information in a single contained space.

No more being distracted by your daily to-dos, appointments on your calendar, or work assignments.

You can easily review and focus on data in one convenient place.

You can find commonalities you may not have found otherwise.

Have you ever reviewed your calendar at the end of the year? The power of hindsight can be quite valuable.

You’re sure to find patterns…that is, if you look carefully.

Those weekly volunteering sessions, bimonthly business trips, and daily gym visits can become crystal clear in the blink of an eye.

Similarly, when you keep a productivity journal you have chunks of factual information available to you for your keen evaluation.

Review your productivity journal at the end the week and you might uncover some surprising, and perhaps even startling information about how you work.

You might find you don’t work well in the mornings, but thrive in the afternoon.

Or, you may believe you don’t make progress on cataloging videos on Thursdays afternoon, when in fact you catalog more on Thursdays than Mondays.

You can record and rank tools, resources, and materials.

Part of the joy in working efficiently is finding those tools and resources that make it easy to complete your work.

What if you could take things one step further and actually take note of, classify, and grade your tools?

Doing so may make your productivity levels soar! You’ll know exactly what items ultimately help or hinder your efforts.

By using this technique, you can evaluate productivity tools, resources, and materials side by side.

For instance, you could identify which project planning programs worked well under certain circumstances, and which ones horribly failed.

You could rank all the productivity to-do apps you’ve used over the past few years.

Why not decide which apps are best for personal or work use?

How about grading apps on their ease of use, practicality, and overall effectiveness?

As you can see, when it comes to being more productive, it can help to have a written record of your experiences.

When your productivity efforts and results are accurately captured, you can take targeted steps to make improvements to your daily routine.

Learn how to be productive at work

Productivity skills are important if you want to consistently get things done at work and home.

My to do list training will teach you how to prioritize to-dos, manage tasks, and get things done.

If you want me to show you how to manage your to-dos at work and home, then check out my productivity consulting services. Book a strategy session with me today!

How about you? How are you thinking of using a productivity journal for your current projects and assignments? Join the conversation and leave a comment below!

5 Unexpected Things You Need to Organize a Work Notebook Mockup
About the Author

Rashelle

Rashelle Isip is a New York City-based productivity consultant who helps successful entrepreneurs and business owners manage their time and energy so they can reduce stress, work less, and make more money in their businesses. She has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, NBC News, The Washington Post, NPR, and The Atlantic. Get her free guide, 5 Unexpected Things You Need to Organize a Work Notebook, by clicking here.

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This