How Keeping a Business Journal can Keep you on Track

One of the best pieces of advice someone gave to me when I started my own business was to keep a daily business journal as a way of staying focused and productive. As someone who has always been an avid journaler in my personal life, having a daily business journal felt very natural to me. It has become a tool that I rely on for a lot of different things including planning, tracking progress, self accountability, celebrating success, identifying weaknesses and stressors, and for helping myself remember things that I might otherwise forget. 

I know you might be thinking "Ugh! Another thing!?" But truthfully, a business journal doesn't need to be over the top and can be as elaborate or as simple as you need or want it to be.

The image above is a page from my own business journal. This Daily Reflection page is my favorite journal page and helps to keep me focused to a single page of detail without having to write an entire book each day. Elements of this page include: 3 things that I am grateful for, 3 things that I accomplished today, things that I didn't get to that I wanted to, word to describe today and word for tomorrow to help set intentions for the following day, a place to write about something I don't want to forget, something that brought me joy, and identifying stress or worries.

In this article, I want to share with you some of the reasons why having a business journal helps you stay focused and on track, as well as some elements you may consider adding to your own daily journal. The information and benefits I am going to share are based off of my own system and experiences with this type of journaling.

Why keep a business journal?

The biggest question of course is, WHY? Why would you want to keep a business journal? It's just another thing on top of everything else that we have going on. We live in a busy world with busy schedules and lots of stuff going on all the time. So, why would we want to keep a business journal? 

The main reason... because it might just be your number one tool and guide to help you be successful in your business. 

Here are 5 ideas for you to consider and some ways that I use each of these concepts personally:

1. Goal setting and self accountability

Let's face it. We've all set goals at the beginning of the year, went completely gung-ho for the first week or two and then never looked at them again. Keeping a business journal can not only help you with goal setting, but also with building the plan it takes to achieve your goals, as well as monitoring the progress towards achieving them and holding yourself accountable because you are constantly (and consistently) keeping those goals in front of you.  

In my own business journal, I set monthly goals based on my yearly intentions and then break them down into smaller weekly goals. At the end of every week I do a quick recap of what I achieved and what I need to improve on in the next week. At the end of every month, I recap on what I accomplished and how much progress I made towards my over-arching yearly goals.

2. Celebrate success - big and small

I am a firm believer that we do not celebrate our successes enough and we should be! No matter how big or how small, we should always be taking a few minutes to pat ourselves on the back for working hard towards the things we want to achieve, even if that just means getting out of bed and showing up.

In my journal, I like to answer the question - What are 3 things you accomplished today? To be perfectly honest, even though three doesn't sound like a lot, some days it is. But, like gratitude, there are always successes to celebrate. 

3. Identify stressors and worries that may be holding you back

As human beings, we all have stress triggers and things that worry us. Even if those worries only exist in our heads and not in reality, they are still there. Putting stress and worries into a written context can help you move past them because you are giving them a name. You are identifying them to yourself so that they don't keep controlling your life or your decisions.

The one question that I answer daily is: Do you have any worries, real or perceived? The one surprising takeaway that I have had from repeating this exercise daily is this... when I identify those things that are worrying me, they don't feel as big then. It makes it easier to look at it, understand why its there and how it affects my behavior, and move past is so that it is not continuously plaguing my thoughts all the time.

4. Helps you to remember things you'd otherwise forget

With all that we have going on all the time, it's hard to remember the details of what we did and when we did them. I know for me, it's hard to remember what I did yesterday, let alone what I did 6 months ago on a Tuesday. Keeping a daily log of things that we accomplished and notable events is a great way of taking the burden off our shoulders to trying to remember what we did at some point in the past.

In my own business journal, I answer the question: What happened today that you don't want to forget? Most of the times I am writing about things that happened in my business, but there are also a lot of times where I write about something personal too. My family and friends are just as key in my success as a business owner as I am, and there are so many great memories that I don't want to lose track of.

5. Review the day and set intentions for tomorrow

The last element that I want to talk about is the idea of summing up the day in one word and then choosing a word to help to describe tomorrow.  To take it another step further, pair the practice of picking a word for tomorrow with creating a plan on how you are going to make that happen. 

I have come to enjoy this process in my own journal, though admittedly, somedays it is hard to pick just one word to describe the events of the day. One of the reasons I like this exercise is because I feel like it helps me to set my mind in a specific direction for the following day. Particularly if I have had a rough day today. Sometimes it feels like, "ok today sucked, but I am going to make tomorrow better and this is how I am going to do it."

To wrap up...There are so many benefits to keep daily journals and logs both in a personal setting and a business setting. These are the positive aspects I have gained from keep a daily business journal and you may find your own. If anything, writing out a summary of your achievements and successes, creating a plan for tomorrow, understanding your worries and fears, and logging events that you don't want to forget will provide you with closure for the day. It will help you feel better prepared for tomorrow. 

If you want to see my full line of digital journals and journal templates, you can check them out on my Etsy Shop.