In the busy rhythm of everyday work, there is one habit that, if consistently practiced, brings the greatest benefit to improving personal efficiency and career growth — keeping a work journal and writing regular summaries. Although it seems simple, this habit holds tremendous value and potential. It helps you clarify your thoughts, identify problems, optimize your approach, and ultimately achieve career breakthroughs amid the complex flow of daily tasks.
Below, I’ll share my personal experience and walk you through how this habit evolved for me — from basic “log-keeping” to more advanced methodologies — and introduce some practical tools and tips you can use.
1. Starting with Basic Logs: The Initial Form of Work Journals
When I first started keeping a work journal, it was basically a strict requirement from my company. Every day I had to record what tasks I completed. While this made supervision easier for management, for employees it was a difficult and often neglected daily chore.
Keeping a journal was challenging because:
- The workload was complex, and details were easy to forget.
- At the end of the day, fatigue made it hard to organize thoughts immediately.
- If I didn’t keep up daily, I had to scramble on Friday afternoons to catch up on a whole week’s entries, sometimes even facing penalties.
After being penalized several times, I realized I needed to systematize this process and make it easier. So, I turned journaling into a “scheduled task” with three fixed times every day:
- Morning after starting work — review and prioritize the day’s tasks, and check if yesterday’s log was complete.
- Before lunch break — spend three minutes to note progress from the morning.
- Five minutes before leaving work — quickly jot down a summary of the day’s work.
Breaking it up this way made journaling feel lighter and more natural. Though most entries were just simple, straightforward logs without much depth, this practice greatly improved my ability to trace back and review what I had done on any given day — quick and easy.
After a few months, journaling became a habit and an indispensable tool in my professional life.
2. Taking Logs to the Next Level: How to Make Your Work Summaries More Helpful
Once the habit was established, I naturally started to wonder — how can I make my logs more valuable and truly supportive of my work growth?
After experimenting with various methods, I found two approaches particularly effective:
1. KPT Method: Simple and Practical Management Wisdom from Japan
KPT stands for Keep, Problem, and Try.
It’s straightforward:
- Keep: Note what went well today and what should be continued.
- Problem: List difficulties encountered or existing unresolved issues.
- Try: Plan specific improvements or solutions to try next.
The core value of this method lies in its focus not just on “what was done,” but also on keen observation of problems and proactive planning. After some time, you’ll notice:
- Problems become clearer instead of vague.
- You start actively thinking and experimenting with improvements rather than passively following instructions.
- Your work methods and thinking skills develop systematically.
2. ORID Method: Deep Reflection to Support Rational Decisions
ORID originates from psychology and group communication. It stands for Objective, Reflective, Interpretive, and Decisional.
Applied to work journals, it means:
- O (Objective): Describe the facts of what you did and any relevant data.
- R (Reflective): Reflect on your emotions, stress, and motivation during the work.
- I (Interpretive): Analyze the meaning and underlying causes of success or failure.
- D (Decisional): Make concrete plans for next steps based on your analysis.
This method is more systematic and in-depth, helping you cultivate the ability to view problems from multiple perspectives and take rational, targeted actions.
3. How Keeping a Work Journal Helped My Career Growth Specifically
Years of consistent journaling and summarizing have greatly benefited my career, especially during the crucial transition from middle management to senior leadership:
1. Regular Review Reveals Blind Spots and Areas for Improvement
Journaling forced me to regularly reflect on shortcomings and habitual oversights, enabling timely adjustments and preventing small issues from escalating.
2. Clearer Thinking and More Logical Reporting
Logs helped me organize key tasks and progress daily, making it easier to communicate clearly and with detailed data to supervisors and colleagues — boosting my professional image and influence.
3. Saves Time Writing Documents by Quickly Reusing Material
Many meeting minutes, plans, and reports I write come directly from content extracted and lightly edited from daily logs, saving huge amounts of time and effort.
4. Promotes Self-Growth and Strengthens Execution
By recording problems and action plans, I developed a clearer growth path and goals, which gave my work direction and naturally improved efficiency.
4. Tips to Make Work Journaling a Habit
- Set fixed times: Break it into three small sessions (morning, noon, evening) to reduce burden.
- Keep entries concise and focused: Don’t aim for length, just key points.
- Choose tools that suit you: Paper notebooks, digital docs, or apps — whatever is easiest for you to record on the go.
- Commit for at least 21 days: The golden time to form a habit; stick with it to see results.
- Regularly review and summarize: Weekly or monthly reviews help identify growth and areas to improve.
5. Conclusion
Among the many things you can do daily at work, keeping a journal and writing summaries is by far the most beneficial habit. It gives you a clear overview of your work, cultivates reflection and optimization, and acts as a powerful accelerator for your career development.
I hope you give these methods a try, find the journaling style that fits you best, and leverage this strong tool to make your career path smoother and more exciting.