This year, I started keeping an informal work journal. I had been stuck on a single problem ona particular project for weeks, and was worried that I had not actually done any work for several days. I was in the research cloud. I should point out that this happens all the time in research, so I wasn’t particularly embarrassed or worried about my progress, but I felt like I needed to build some momentum. Then I realized that what I often do when I’m stuck is write an email to my advisor, and usually about halfway through that email I figure out what I’m doing wrong. After going through this process hundreds of times, I realized that writing down my problem usually goes a long way in solving it. So rather than compose emails to my advisor that never get sent, I decided to start writing things down for myself, in a journaling format.

The mechanics for this journal are simple - I have a new file for every week, and each day has a section within that file. Each day has two headings, goals and achievements. Under goals, I write down what I want to try on a given day, and under achievements I write about what I actually tried, and how it went, and what new questions I want to ask tomorrow. For me, this informal process of note taking has the same cathartic effects of journaling about life stuff while still being pragmatic.