How I keep a work journal
Tags: productivity, career
Published: 2022-03-03 18:50:01

---
title: How I keep a work journal
date: 2022-03-01 00:00:00 UTC
tags: ['productivity', 'career']
cover_image: https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/xshyyqtdp1l571jd5so0.png
canonical_url: https://edeen.dev/blog/how-i-keep-a-work-journal/
---

This is a short post that provides a high-level overview of my specific note-taking process for work. I don't have a catchy name for this process, and I'm not trying to be prescriptive or convince you to use it yourself. This is just a reference post that you may find helpful while you figure out what sort of note-taking process works for you.

I think it's also important to note that the way I arrange these notes is specifically in the context of working at a job. Notes I take for own purposes aren't formatted in quite the same way.

If you'd like to look at a template for this system, I've also shared a [sample work journal](https://github.com/jedeen/work-journal-sample).

## Detailed notes

Detailed notes are where most of my writing takes place. I write as I work, recording fragments, partial thoughs, ideas, and questions I have. I also write lots of checklists in this section.

## Summaries

Each of the summary sections is a distillation of the previous, more detailed set of notes.

### Daily summaries

One day's worth of detailed notes becomes a daily summary. I often format this into three sections: things I accomplished today, things I want to work on tomorrow, and things I will work on at some later point in the future. I also make note of specific information that it might be useful to extract from my personal notes into shared documentation for my colleagues.

### Weekly summaries

Five work days worth of daily summaries are condensed down into a weekly summary. A weekly summary divided into sections similar to a daily summary: things I accomplished this week, things I will work on next week, and things I will work on at some later point in the future. These notes are particularly useful when I'm coming back to work at the start of the week and am trying to remember what I was doing at the end of last week.

### Yearly summaries

A yearly summary isn't just a collection of the past year's weekly summaries. I format it more specifically to be useful for the annual performance review process, focusing on projects or initiatives that I directed, processes that I improved, goals I accomplished, and positive feedback about my impact at work.

## One-to-one meeting notes

I usually take notes about any one-to-one meetings I have. I keep track of to-dos, important reference information, feedback, and other useful details to help me collaborate more effectively with my colleagues.

## Reference notes

I put keyboard commands, shortcuts, utilities, and other small bits of useful info in reference notes. Anything that expands beyond a small scope I consider for converting into shared documentation.

## Additional Resources

- [The Weekly Notes Post](https://cate.blog/2017/03/16/the-weekly-notes-post)
- [Get your work recognized: write a brag document](https://jvns.ca/blog/brag-documents/)
- [lftm: low-friction task management system](https://github.com/CoralineAda/lftm)