by: Doreene Clement
Keeping a journal is a proven, powerful tool to enhance and benefit not only your personal life and well being. Journaling can also do the same for your work life. It is a way to record and track daily activities and thoughts, which can help with long term projects and goals.
You can record the what, when, where, and why of what is important for you, your career, and your company. You can journal in a blank book, in your daily planner, on your computer, on cassette, or even on video. Use the system that most fits and supports your routine.
Some Benefits of Keeping a Journal
Setting goals and resolution One very effective way to start using your journaling in your work life is to write what your goals and resolutions are. These can be for yourself, for your co-workers/employees, or even for your company. The key to goals and resolutions is that they go hand in hand. A goal is what you want to accomplish. A resolution is how you are going to accomplish your goal. As you write be sure to include specific thoughts and ideas for both. You can create your goals and resolutions on a daily, weekly, monthly, or even on a yearly basis.
Goals A goal is what you want to accomplish. You can use your journal to set both long and short-term goals.
Be very specific - I want to be Vice-President of Sales by 2004. I want to make 25% more money by the end of this year.
Resolutions A resolution is your resolve of how you are going to reach your goal. Again be very specific - To become Vice President of Sales by 2004 I will do the following……Then list these items. To make more money by the end of this year I will…..Again make a specific list of tasks and to do's that are practical things you can do to accomplish your goal.
Solve problems, revealing solutions You can use your journaling as a problem solving tool. As you write about a problem, your concerns, and even your fears, solutions can become more evident, because you…
…See what you are thinking As you write down what you are thinking you are making solid on the paper your thoughts, and you can see what you are thinking. With that it can be easier to assess if what you are thinking is serving want you want to accomplish.
Understand habits and patterns We are creatures of habit. We create patterns and routines in ways of acting, and also in our thinking. Journaling our desires, thoughts, ideas, dreams, goals, and what is most important to us now, we can better see and track our habits and patterns. This process often reveals where we are stuck, and why.
Process and explore As you write, it is a process of exploration into who you are, and what you are thinking. It is an examination of what it is that you carry with you, in your mind, everyday.
Reduces stress, helps focus, and organizes Journaling is a proven method to reduce stress, because the expression and clarity through journaling your experiences removes tension from that experience. With less tension, you can be more focused, and it becomes easier to see and then focus on what is really important to you, for you, and your career.
Can improve well-being, and makes time for you Through keeping a journal, with all the benefits that you can receive, there are studies proving that journaling improves well-being. With journaling you stop and think about what you are experiencing or needing.
Creates a personal reminder You can use your journal to remind yourself and even the people you work with of not only deadlines and timeframes, but you can outline specific targets in your journaling. Your journal becomes a planning and organizing tool as you use it to set specific goals for yourself, individuals, and for your company.
More journaling benefits
Departments, and Co-workers Journaling
Another powerful force that you can create is to suggest everyone in a department journal on a specific solution or problem. Individuals can also journal about where they would like to see their department go in the next year, 2, or 3 years. You can create topics or have staff create journal topics that can benefit the department or company as a whole.
Blue Sky What if…. Blue Sky is a brainstorming technique where the sky is the limit, and since the sky appears to have no limit, you can GO FOR IT.
You can use your journal as a blank palette to create all the dreams and ideas, all those thoughts that can be recorded without fear that they can't or won't happen Journal your thoughts, ideas, dreams, and desires without any concern that this, that, or the other would have to be, or have to happen, before your idea can come true.
30 day journals…are an effective way to focus on specific problems or concerns. You would keep a separate journal and write about one situation for 30 days. (You can also use more, or less than the 30 days.) Journaling is a way to process. Concentrating on one topic for a set amount of time, narrows the focus and energy to a specific concern.