I always find it hard to find a balance between making a journal functionally useful and spending so much time on it that it borders on procrastination. This blog will hopefully help you figure out what best works for you to keep you productive in the hours you have in your day.
I’m more of a pen to paper person, as much as I find calendars and productivity trackers great for managing teams, I still find a good old notebook helps me stay organised. Here are some journaling methods I’ve come across that you could explore and experiment with.
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Bullet Journaling:
I started Bullet Journaling two years ago when I started a new job. This helped considerably because a new job meant new tasks and a whole bunch of things I didn’t understand or know enough about. It helped me stay organised and index my journey. It became easier for me to find notes and projects I had worked on and therefore, flip through my notes and be prepared for any urgent requirements.
Here’s a guide on how to get started on this method:
The Bullet Journal Method book is also an insightful read that had me hooked. Some of the case studies and how this method has helped the users still blows my mind. If you’re looking at something functional I definitely recommend this method as a start to manage all your tasks in a day.
I’ll be honest, while effective, I do find this to be a bit time consuming, so now I don’t do everything, I use a little bit of the bullet journaling method, especially the parts that really worked for me.
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Pomodoro Technique:
This technique involves breaking your workday into 25-minute intervals (called "Pomodoros"), with 5-minute breaks in between each one. After four Pomodoros, you take a longer break of 15-20 minutes. This can help you stay focused and productive, while also avoiding burnout. I find this method helps considerably when you have a packed schedule and a huge set of tasks that need to be completed. If you need distraction free and focused time on your work while ticking off tasks from your to-do list, this works well.
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Time Blocking:
This involves scheduling blocks of time for specific tasks or activities throughout the day. While the Pomodoro Technique works best when you’re working on your own - maybe you’re a freelancer or a designer or even a student, I find that in work settings when you’re collaborating with others, it’s easy to get sucked into meetings and projects you don’t have time for. Time blocking helps you account for the meetings as well the actual time it would take you to complete a task.
Sometimes at the end of a day I tend to look back and feel - what did I even do today? Or did I achieve anything today? Time blocking helps you account for your time and if you find you’re wasting time in the day on tasks that don’t seem to be as important, refer to the next point on the Eisenhower Matrix.
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Eisenhower Matrix:
Prioritising your tasks is key to improving work efficiency. The Eisenhower Matrix helps determine which tasks are most important and urgent, and which ones can be delegated or postponed. This is a 2x2 matrix that basically maps your tasks in Urgent vs Important.
The First Quadrant (upper left) maps all urgent and important tasks, the Second Quadrant (upper right) maps all the important, but not urgent tasks, the Third Quadrant (lower left) maps the not important, but urgent tasks and the Fourth Quadrant (lower right) maps neither important nor urgent tasks. Once you’ve added your tasks to these quadrants, it helps you decide which to prioritise, which to delegate and which to discard.
- Brain dumps and Mind maps:
I find these two methods work well together. A brain dump is listing out whatever comes to mind - anything and everything without any walls, categories or segmentation. Once this is done, I find that mind mapping helps with providing visual structure to your brain dumps. By breaking down larger projects into smaller, manageable parts, you can stay organised and focused on what needs to be done. Not everyone’s method for creating a mind map needs to be the same. I use this a lot for event planning, and while I may understand it and find structure in it, colleagues looking at the same piece of paper would run away saying “That’s too confusing!” Don’t let it phase you. If it works for you - it works.
There are of course other methods of journaling, such as free-writing, gratitude journaling, reflective journaling, etc. and those are great for self-care and mindfulness, however if your goal is getting things done in your day, I recommend the 5 methods in this post!
