Journaling Your Day
Tracking Your Productivity
So, you’re writing things down, but are you getting things accomplished? Increasing your productivity may require you to take an informal analysis of how your time is spent daily and weekly. I’m not talking about documenting how much time you spend on each task in a day per se, but what you actually do in a day. If you’re able to track your tasks, then you will be able to see what you are and aren’t getting done.
To track how much work I did in a week, I wrote down all of the tasks I completed each day. (It’s like a reverse to do list, but I captured things I did that weren’t on the list.) I started with what I completed, one by one, and wrote down everything - who I spoke with on the phone and in person, meetings I attended, and tasks I accomplished that were on my daily and weekly list of to do’s. What a difference the pen makes! Even though I didn’t document how much time I spent, I had a pretty good idea of who and what got the most of my time and what I got done.
Try journaling your day for a week and see how productive you really are. Try it on a regular week. Don’t try it during a holiday, spring break, some major change in the company or your life and so on. Here’s an example of what a journal entry might look like:
So, you’re writing things down, but are you getting things accomplished? Increasing your productivity may require you to take an informal analysis of how your time is spent daily and weekly. I’m not talking about documenting how much time you spend on each task in a day per se, but what you actually do in a day. If you’re able to track your tasks, then you will be able to see what you are and aren’t getting done.
To track how much work I did in a week, I wrote down all of the tasks I completed each day. (It’s like a reverse to do list, but I captured things I did that weren’t on the list.) I started with what I completed, one by one, and wrote down everything - who I spoke with on the phone and in person, meetings I attended, and tasks I accomplished that were on my daily and weekly list of to do’s. What a difference the pen makes! Even though I didn’t document how much time I spent, I had a pretty good idea of who and what got the most of my time and what I got done.
Try journaling your day for a week and see how productive you really are. Try it on a regular week. Don’t try it during a holiday, spring break, some major change in the company or your life and so on. Here’s an example of what a journal entry might look like:
- Talked to Mr. Supply at Office Supplies Co. about lost shipment
- Worked on finance reports
- Scheduled and delegated tasks to employees X, Y and Z
- Sent detailed e-mail to Ms. May about new office products
posted by CTD at
7:53 PM
1 Comments:
Don't feel bad. I tried this process to see how productive I was each week. It helped my memory because sometimes I would forget who I talked to and what the call was about on busier weeks. The journal also helped with follow-up tasks.
By
CTD, at 9:27 PM
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