How writing daily reflections make me more productive at work — and in life

For every weekday of the the past three months, I’ve spent the last moments at work writing reflections.

I’ve used a template of four questions and usually pick the three I think fit best for the given day.

1. What was done?
2. What went well?
3. What have I learned?
4. What can I improve?

Most people I’ve told about this are dubious to why I do this.

Why would I spend time every day just doing meta-work, rather than solving actual problems?

Until recently, I haven’t been able to give more of an answer than that this is something I wanted to try.

But with more than three months of experience, I start to see how this habit really affects me.

Today, I’d like to share how these reflections not only make me more productive at work, but also help me grow as a person. I’ll also tell you how I turned this into a habit.

The benefits of writing reflections

1. I can see beyond the daily challenges, and think about the bigger picture.
2. I know the current state of my work.
3. I know what to do when I get back the next day and can start immediately. Since mornings happen to be the best time of my days, this help me make full use of them.
4. I solve many problems that otherwise would have been much harder to solve the next day, when I don’t have the context of the current day.
5. I constantly get to see what I’ve done well — something that’s easy to miss if I would have been stuck in my daily challenges and never stepped back to think.
6. I know what I can improve — and can focus on how to get there.
7. I better retain what I’ve learned.
8. I can reflect on my experiences and see new perspectives on how things fit together.
9. I can read what I wrote a while back and clearly see my progress.
10. I know what I’ve done at any given day.
11. I can compile a list of accomplishments that I can share with coworkers who want to know what I’ve done.
12. Over time, I learn what value I produce.
13. Over time, I learn what I need to perform at my best. Both when it comes to the situation at work as well as how I best prepare for work.

In short, I think these reflections give me many valuable insights that help me work better. But the most important ones also deeply affect me as a person.

1. I can leave work-related thoughts before I get home. This allows me to relax better, which in turn improves my focus the next day.
2. Leaving work at work also gives me energy to do other things when I get home. This allows me to learn and grow in many areas.

How I turned daily writing into a habit

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Willing is not enough; we must do.”

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

I believe more people know about the power of reflections than you and me might think. But generally, the process of turning ideas into habits is really hard.

The biggest obstacle is finding the time. Most people are busy as it is, and it’s never fun to cut time from other activities.

The reason I managed to create my habit was that I didn’t have a choice when it came to cutting time. Since I spend a decent amount of time on my daily commute by bus, I already had chunk of time just ready to be used.

With such great conditions, I basically only had to decide how I wanted to use this time. Since written reflections was something I’d thought about for a while, it wasn’t too hard to commit.

My daily commute is also the reason to why I managed to stick to this habit. By writing my reflections at the exact same moment every day, and by doing it in the same place, I don’t have to think about when or how to do it — I just do it.

If you as most people don’t get the opportunity to have this clearly defined time and space to commit to this kind of habit, applying this will be much harder than I can imagine.

But in that case, I recommend you to really think about the benefits. Maybe some things are worth cutting time for?

Conclusion

I don’t say this habit is for everyone, but I’m sure some could find this useful.

Do you spend time reflecting? If so, how do you fit it into your daily routine?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Thank you for reading!