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5 Reasons You Need a (Work) Diary

Posted February 16, 2009

You may be employed, unemployed, partially employed, self-employed, studying something or other with the hopes of sometime getting employed, or involved in one of those employment relationships that provide lots of work and no paycheck, but the potential to hopefully one day, with a lot of luck, move on to a regular job someplace or other.

Whatever your situation, it’s time to start keeping a work-related diary.

Don’t tell us you don’t have the time; once you get the hang of this, it’s easy to make diary-ing a quick part of your daily routine. And don’t delude yourself into thinking you don’t need this valuable technique. If you feel secure in whatever your situation is, you need a diary and a psychotherapist. We can’t address both of those problems today.

So, let’s focus on the work diary. Here are five ways this can help you get from where you are to where you want to be:

1. Page one is the place to write down your job-related goals. Only have one? Get a job! That’s fine. Put it in writing. Would you really love to transition to a different employer or a different type of job? Put that down too. In a lousy job market like this one, it’s easy to get trapped in a kind of survival mode, losing longer-term focus and with it, your energy and enthusiasm. The right kind of work diary will keep you on track.

2. Record your accomplishments. We’re talking big and small — and we urge you to not overlook the kind of subtle intangibles that are worth feeling proud about. If you’re currently employed, you can think about this as resume-building or good preparation for your next annual review.

What if you’re job-hunting? You’ll get the best payoff from writing about two different types of accomplishments. Make it a practice, of course, to record whatever you’ve done in pursuit of your next job. But we also urge you to write about other accomplishments that might have work-related relevance. Did you run a fund-raiser at your son’s school? Start volunteering at a local nonprofit? Just because you’re not pulling down a paycheck at this particular time doesn’t mean you’re not learning and doing something that could have value in a work-related context. Write about it.

3. Don’t forget about your emotions. No, we’re not recommending that you throw yourself into life as a diary-keeping would-be teen drama queen/king. But it’s remarkable how helpful it can be to allow yourself to think about the ways that different activities and accomplishments make you feel.

Maybe this process will allow you to identify clues about where your work life should take you. Case in point: The person whose job title involves one set of responsibilities but whose greatest satisfaction comes from mentoring people at the office or volunteering as a math tutor in the community. Or maybe writing about your emotions will help you realize that you deserve plenty of credit simply for persisting in a job hunt, no matter how confused or demoralized you might be, or for holding onto a job you don’t love, when there aren’t any other alternatives, at least not now.

4. Use your diary for brainstorming too. You don’t need to pursue every workplace or job-hunting strategy that you write about in your diary. But odds are pretty strong that if you don’t write about them, you’ll never give some of your most promising notions a chance. You might even want to designate one day each week as brainstorming day: Find a quiet place, set the timer, and just let your brain cells ramble for a while. Think about new skills you’d like to learn, challenges you’d like to tackle, or people you’d like to reconnect with.

5. When in doubt, read your diary. In an economy like this one, which seems to “value” individuals so little, it’s easy for any of us to lose our sense of self-worth. That’s where the diary comes in. If you write in it regularly, you’ll be able to identify patterns of accomplishment and recall moments you felt good about (and hopefully still do). Are you completely stymied and out of ideas? Turn to any of your brainstorming pages and you’ll have more than enough to get you started again.

You’ll probably also be able to see some things that aren’t going the way you planned. That’s just fine. Make some corrections and move on. But don’t forget to write about that in your diary too.

The Whiner wants to know: What’s an accomplishment of yours that’s worth writing about in a work diary? Which goals would you write about on page one?

Reader Comments

  1. Lorraine

    This sounds like a good idea. I just lost my job a few weeks ago, so finding a new one is at the top of my list. But I’m so worried about the job market that I keep second-guessing myself every time I think about what I should be doing to start job-hunting. I know that’s no good but I can’t seem to stop myself from doing it. Maybe if I started writing some of this down I’d begin to get a direction and find a little motivation (maybe that’s the wrong word – I AM motivated, but I expect to fail so I can’t start trying).

  2. Gail

    Thanks for these ideas–I can see where this would be handy and even though I’m still employed, I might start a work diary since most of us really have no idea if we’ll still be employed next week, do we? The number of people I know who are out of work is growing all the time. I don’t imagine it will be too long before we see some big changes in our cultutre, like three or four generations living together under one roof to save money.

  3. Nate

    I think this is a great idea. I have such a diary, but it mostly just lists ideas I have. I like the notion of listing your goals and accomplishments as well. Good tip, Whiner!

  4. kat

    what a great idea! sounds like it’ll help keep you on track, especially if you are nlooking for work. and i really like the part about emotions: people forget what a vital part they play.