So I studied quite a bit…
I got a Diploma, a BSc Degree, a Certificate and Diploma in Management (only ‘cos I was too young to do the MBA) and finally a Masters.
So when I first came across a journal it was in the context of shelves and shelves of a library with little cardboard racks filled with volumes of journals from obscure Organisations and Bodies.
These things contained articles written by distinguished and interesting people. One particular assignment on ‘Can an Artificial Intelligence have Ethics’ led me spend a whole afternoon in the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) volumes of journals on Computer Ethics….!!
…anyway I digress.
The point is that my early feelings towards ‘journals’ was boring, dusty and little stinky – old paper doesn’t keep fresh!
Your own Journal Power
Fortunately Journal Power does not require the use of old dusty papers.
It also will not require you to visit anywhere with lots of books and papers on many shelves.
No! The Journal Power I am going to share with you is something you
…already have…
…can do anywhere that works for you…
…and…
…you can start using this new power today!
How does Journal Power work?
As enterpreneurs, wannapreneurs, sidepreneurs or just cube-monkeys we all get through a ton of “stuff” every day of every week of every year.
Now granted for some us the “stuff” can be of higher value than others. Rocking the XBox for 30hrs a week is possibly of less value to your average Sidepreneur than putting in those hours getting their eCommerce site up and working.
The point is that there’s a whole lot of time spent doing things that ‘could’ be moving you towards your goals and success.
Looking ahead while looking back
Yes, that’s a weird headline and I’m not talking about having eyes in the back of your head (although a recent R&D innovation client – Mark – can give you that in the shape of a motorcycle helmet with a rearview camera built in – see REEVU for more details).
What I’m talking about is having the ability to look forward and ahead at what you’re going to do with your time setting actions and goals for the week ahead…
…and then at the end of each day looking back at how you’ve spent the day, the achievements you’ve made and the challenges you’ve faced.
How does Looking Back power you Ahead?
Fair question…and looking back at how you’ve spent your hours is, believe it or not, a really powerful way to ensure that when you look ahead you get greater success out of the hours ahead of you.
Related article: How to get more time for your idea
Believe me when I say that when you start to take the time each day to look back at what “stuff” you’ve done and what you’ve achieved it will REALLY open your eyes.
Now, for some of us it won’t open our eyes in a good way, we’ll see how we’ve spent all those hours and realise that they weren’t really spent moving us towards our goals in any meaningful way.
For others it will be a motivational boost to realise that actually, they’ve got through more than they thought they did in those hours and with it will bring the realisation that they can do more than they thought they could.
Writing it Down – your extended memory
A crucial piece of the jigsaw is to take the time to write the things down that you’ve achieved each day in your ‘journal’ so that you can come back to them at the end of the week / month.
Taking a leaf out of the Dave Allen GTD book, taking stuff out of your brain and putting it down somewhere (i.e. in your Journal) so that you don’t need to keep it in your brain clouding it from the focused activities you need it to work on…is a good thing. It’s like having a second memory!
Now your journal doesn’t need to be leather-bound and come from the pages of Harry Potter. It can be anything you’re comfortable keeping to hand so that you can write in it every day. It can be a Word Document on a computer or an app on your Mac, iPad or Tablet (Day One is particularly good).
It just needs to be something that is with you and on-hand when you’re ready to record your progress – frictionless and available.
Successes Every Week
After you’ve been doing this for a couple of weeks you’ll start to see how your successes add up. The magic happens through applying these practical steps:
- You ‘write ahead’ in your journal at the start of the week setting out the top 5 things you want to get done
- At the end of each day you ‘look back’ at how you’ve spent those hours and what achievements or blockers you’ve had
- At the end of the week you take-stock of what you said you would look to get done, and what you’ve actually got done
- You learn what worked and what didn’t this week and use that to make next week better
Simples eh! I said building your future was Simple but Hard right here didn’t I 🙂
JUST TEN MINUTES A DAY of practical action is all it takes to get this JOURNAL POWER working for you.
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