Participants in my workshops and webinars regularly hear encouragement and reminders from me to use a professional journal. I’ve long believed journaling is one of the most powerful continuous improvement tools we can use in our working lives. Yet only a small number of individuals I encounter employ this great self-development tool. My goal is to increase that number. Here’s some encouragement:

Why Journal?

Over the years, I’ve collected feedback from clients who maintain a professional journal. Here’s a selection (paraphrased) of those comments:

I dedicate ten minutes to updating my journal in the morning and the evening. I look forward to those moments because they allow me to slow down and think about what I’m doing and how I might do it better.

Journaling helps me focus on the best places to exert my limited time and energy. The act of jotting down my big initiatives helps me prioritize and focus. I cannot imagine not doing this.

I use my journal to outline problems with initiatives and people and then define constructive approaches to dealing with challenges.

My journal is my decision log. I document all the key issues and expectations for big decisions and then loop back to review what I got right and wrong to improve my decision-making effectiveness.

I use my journal to practice Art’s technique for preparing for challenging conversations—especially feedback discussions and then to record what worked and what I need to do differently the next time.

Journaling is part of my daily mindfulness practice. If I don’t do it, I feel off.

I run a weekly check-in on my big goals and identify the next steps for each one.

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That’s a healthy list of great reasons to consider incorporating professional journaling into your daily routine. With relatively low effort and time investment, you gain a powerful tool to help you focus on your priorities, identify steps to strengthen your effectiveness, and create a little peace in your daily travels. It’s hard to beat the R.O.T.I. (return on time invested) from journaling!

How to Get Started with Your Professional Journal

We all know how challenging it is to adopt new behaviors. I want to make this easy for you and minimize the excuses that get in the way of our aspirations around diets and fitness. Here are some suggestions to help you jumpstart your professional journaling program: 

Analog or Digital—You Make the Call

I’ve alternated between Moleskine notebooks and my Evernote app for my journaling activities. I favor the Moleskine (pen and paper approach) because it gets me off the screen. When writing in my journal, I’m not tempted to check incoming messages, respond to chat, or look at my e-mail. 

Both work fine. Any bound journal or notebook will work if you choose analog (pen and paper).

It’s Not “Dear Diary…” What Do I Write?

OK, let’s dispel the “Dear Diary” myth that makes some people uncomfortable with the idea of journaling. Journaling is your self-development tool to tailor to your needs. As you can see in the comments above, people capture a wide variety of information. I encourage you to start small and build to your preferences. 

A Simple, But Powerful Starter Suggestion:

If you’re at a loss for what to write in your journal but want to get started, consider this prompt that a group developed in one of my leadership workshops. 

In the morning:

What do I need to do to succeed at every encounter today? (Think: behaviors, being authentic, being present, listening fiercely, offering ideas and encouragement, etc.)

In the late afternoon:

What did I do that worked great today that I will do more of tomorrow?

I love the simplicity of these questions and the way they bookend every day for success. Start with these and then expand to suit your needs. Estimated time investment per day: 20-minutes or less. Value in helping you focus: priceless!

Expanding Your Coverage in Your Journal—Twenty Prompts

Be comfortable choosing what helps you the most with your journaling prompts and time investment. Here’s a list of items to consider—many drawn from the comments above. Mix, match, and amend as you see fit! And remember that these can be both proactive—things you want to do, and reactive—things you did and the impact they had.

  1. Planning for and outcomes of feedback discussions
  2. Notes on the feedback you’ve received and what you plan to do with it
  3. Reminders on the feedback you need to give (especially praise)
  4. Planning for challenging conversations beyond feedback
  5. An idea log—something I call your B.I.L. for Big Idea List
  6. Your daily priorities. (I hesitate to suggest this become your To-Do list location; however, that’s your call.)
  7. Your plans for and outcomes of one-on-one meetings with team members or your boss
  8. Updates on your progress with your primary goals
  9. A weekly listing of the relationships you want to start, renew, and repair. (Great network development tool!)
  10. Obstacles in your way and your ideas to work through them
  11. Additional skills you want to master or areas of exploration that will support your growth.
  12. What you will do to better advocate for team members or your boss
  13. Things you see in the workplace that merit fixing or improving and ideas on who might help you do the work
  14. Observation-based ideas you can use in coaching team members
  15. What you need from your boss in terms of help or resources and ideas to gain their support
  16. Activities you’ve engaged in that you love(d) and want to do more in your work
  17. Out-of-the-box ideas to solve vexing problems
  18. People who should meet other people networking ideas.
  19. Your professional reading list and what you gained from the book or article you just finished. (And what you’ll do about it.)
  20. Ideas or plans to find the right balance for you between work and personal activities

If you have additional prompts you want to share, drop me a note, and I’ll post them as an update to this article.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

If you’re reading this article, you’re interested in your personal growth and performance. If you’re not already journaling, commit to trying it for two weeks and see how it goes. It might just be one of the best things you’ve done for yourself in your professional life. And, it’s free. Let me hear your results!

Art's Signature