Absolutely Great Idea. Best way to reflect back that you have done in the past. One other way it helps me, is that while entering time sheets I no longer wondering about what the heck that I did last Tuesday. I work in a smaller team, where the priorities gets changed so frequently. This habit helps me to track the work that I have done also helps me to focus on the task at hand for the day.
I use "Evernote" for my work. I have a separate notebook titled, "Work Log". Every day, I start my day with a todo list of tasks to be done and start with that. I add additional notes below that.
For example this is my work log from last week 13th of July, 2017,
13 July, 2017
Todo:
[x] Create Repo for *** design
[x] Escalations
[x] Shawn’s issue with ****
[x] API testing using postman app
[x] technical tasks proposal
[ ] Study the *** design
...
Escalations:
Notes related
Shawn’s issue
Notes related
I will create a new note, if a task has required lots of details. For example, technical tasks proposal.
At the end of the day, I reflect back on the tasks and mark it done if it is completed. I will add the incomplete tasks to next day based on the priority. This kind of helps me keep focus and track of the work being done.
One key take away for me from this article is to limit the number of tasks. I do prioritize the work that I do but there are times where I have added bunch of tasks to be done at the start of the day and complete very few of them. Although I know that I have completed the tasks in the priority order, having bunch of in-complete tasks at the end of the day leaves a sour taste. I believe limiting the tasks to a certain number by ruthless prioritization can help me in this case.
Senior software developer at Amazon Web Services. I work on the AWS Serverless Application Repository and AWS SAM. I’m passionate about writing quality software and teaching others how to do the same.
Location
Seattle, WA
Education
BS Computer Engineering, Minors: CS and Math
Work
Sr. Software Development Engineer at Amazon Web Services
Absolutely Great Idea. Best way to reflect back that you have done in the past. One other way it helps me, is that while entering time sheets I no longer wondering about what the heck that I did last Tuesday. I work in a smaller team, where the priorities gets changed so frequently. This habit helps me to track the work that I have done also helps me to focus on the task at hand for the day.
I use "Evernote" for my work. I have a separate notebook titled, "Work Log". Every day, I start my day with a todo list of tasks to be done and start with that. I add additional notes below that.
For example this is my work log from last week 13th of July, 2017,
13 July, 2017
Todo:
[x] Create Repo for *** design
[x] Escalations
[x] Shawn’s issue with ****
[x] API testing using postman app
[x] technical tasks proposal
[ ] Study the *** design
...
Escalations:
Shawn’s issue
I will create a new note, if a task has required lots of details. For example, technical tasks proposal.
At the end of the day, I reflect back on the tasks and mark it done if it is completed. I will add the incomplete tasks to next day based on the priority. This kind of helps me keep focus and track of the work being done.
One key take away for me from this article is to limit the number of tasks. I do prioritize the work that I do but there are times where I have added bunch of tasks to be done at the start of the day and complete very few of them. Although I know that I have completed the tasks in the priority order, having bunch of in-complete tasks at the end of the day leaves a sour taste. I believe limiting the tasks to a certain number by ruthless prioritization can help me in this case.
Fantastic Article!!
Thanks so much for sharing your method! I could definitely stand to adopt EverNote as well. My desktop is littered with open TextEdit windows. 😁