How to Increase Productivity by Keeping a Journal
- 1). Purchase a journal. Anything from an expensive leather-bound blank book to a spiral-bound school notebook will do. While journaling on scrap printer paper might save you a buck or two, it's not practical. You need something bound together to keep your ideas all in one place. Chances are, your thoughts are already scattered enough without having to hunt down missing leaves of paper tossed about your study by the ceiling fan.
- 2). Record daily entries into your journal. Consider beginning or ending your day with a brief recap of the events that transpired since your last entry. Enter things like the names of new acquaintances, upcoming events, past events, funny stories or jokes you heard throughout the day. The act of writing something down will help you to remember it, even if the journal entry is not reviewed for some time.
- 3). Keep the journal near you when you are working on tasks that require extended periods of concentration. When you suddenly want to know the year that Neil Young's first record was released, or how much it would cost to replace your damaged Star Wars laser disc, or any of the myriad questions you can have instantly answered by Google, record your question in your journal and then continue working. This will allow you to remain focused on the important project at hand, while still leaving place for your curiosity.
- 4). Record ideas that you have throughout the day. Don't worry about all the details of the ideas at this time. Contentedly drop the tiniest fragments of thought onto paper and flesh them out later. You will have time to judge the merit of the ideas at a later date, but the idea itself might only last a few moments if not written down. Try as you might, you usually won't be able to recapture lost ideas.
- 5). Review your journal every few days and consider the ideas that you jotted down throughout the week. Expand on anything that you still find interesting, and look up any information that you still want to know outside of the momentary Google-urge.