Productivity Hack: Why you Should Keep a Journal as a Grad Student or New Faculty Member
I know what you may be thinking. Isn’t journaling for preteen girls to write their current crush’s name inside of a hand-drawn heart? Well, yeah. But it’s also for graduate students who want to succeed and progress in their programs feeling less overwhelmed and manage time more efficiently! It’s a great way to keep your productivity waaaay up!
I started keeping a journal last summer when I was planning my blog launch (my second blogging attempt....). In it, I kept my daily to-do lists, my long and short-term goals, as well as ideas for the future. The specific type of journal I kept is called a Bullet Journal, and let me tell you, it was so fun! If you want to learn more about the Bullet Journal, or as us journalers call it, the BuJo, check out this super official website as well as these really pretty ones on Pinterest.
In today’s, post, I am giving you a list of reasons why keeping a journal is especially important for productivity while in graduate school.
Reflection
Keeping a journal can give you a safe place to reflect on the thoughts and emotions you have about your career. Maybe you had a wonderful day at teaching or at work. It’s good to acknowledge what you did that day and what made it so great. Or maybe your day wasn’t the best. Writing about it can be a nice release of those negative feelings and can help you to not dwell on it longer than necessary so that you can move forward.
Motivation
Journaling is great for motivation. Something that I love to add to my journal is a to-do list. Checking something off of my to-do list is so satisfying and it helps me to celebrate each little win. In an article in the Harvard Business Review called The Power of Smalls Wins, the authors’ research proved that making progress in meaningful work boosts emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday. Writing in a journal can give you a place to keep track of that progress.
Keeping Track of Accomplishments
It’s also nice to keep a running list of all of your achievements. If you do something awesome or get complimented on your work, write it down. You’ll need to have these things on hand when it’s time for to start applying for jobs and funding opportunities!
Planning
Speaking of job applications, do you know everything that is expected of you to apply for jobs in academia? If not, find out immediately. You can get a checklist here. Then you can write down all of these things in your journal. And now that you know where you are going, you just need to make a plan to get there. For example, being innovative in teaching is a part of my promotion requirements. So each week I try to do something new in the classroom to see how my students react to it along with how well they grasp the material.
Related Post: When to Start Applying for Jobs in Academia
Ideas
A journal is a great place to write down all of your ideas for research or teaching, big or small. Maybe there are colleagues that you want to collaborate with or service projects that you want to put together or be a part of. Maybe there is new research in your field and you want to apply the results in your project. The sky’s the limit! I try to keep a running list of new activities for my students to work on in groups. So far, the biggest hit was Derivative Sudoku. Today, I’m trying a matching game with graphs of functions and their derivatives. I’ll let you know how it goes.
How I use my Journal Daily
I like to take 5-10 minutes either in the morning or the night before work to plan my day. This typically consists of a To-Do list. See my pro tip below.
Throughout the day, I will write down any new ideas or goals that I think of.
At the end of the day, I reflect on everything I’ve done and evaluate what’s working for me and what is not.
Pro Tip: Try to keep your To-Do list short. 3-4 items is about all that one can manage without becoming overwhelmed.
I hope that you have enjoyed this post. Using my journal helps me to stay focused at work and keep my productivity at 100%. Do you currently keep a journal? What type of things do you write in it? If you don’t keep a journal, are thinking about keeping one now?
