What to write
What to write in a work journal
A work journal has four parts. Write them in the same order every day, and keep each one short.
| Part | Example |
|---|---|
| What you didEach thing you worked on, one line each. | Client report, first half. |
| How long it tookWhen you started it and when you stopped. | to . |
| What got in the wayAnything that slowed you down or stopped you. | The supplier call ran long, so the budget sheet started late. |
| What is nextThe first thing you will do tomorrow. | Finish the budget sheet before opening email. |
Most people leave the hours out, and the hours are the part you will want later. “Worked on the report” tells you very little in six months. “Report, 3h 20m” tells you how long a report takes you.
The template
Work journal template
The work journal template below is a small table with four columns, and three lines under it. Copy it into a notebook, a document or a spreadsheet, and fill in one for each workday.
The blank template
| Start | End | What I did | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
- Total hours:
- What got in the way:
- What is next:
Copy the blank template as text, and paste it into a document or a notes app.
A filled-in day
| Start | End | What I did | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email and messages | 40m | ||
| Client report, first half | 1h 50m | ||
| Team meeting | 30m | ||
| Client report, second half | 1h 30m | ||
| Supplier call about a late order | 45m | ||
| Budget sheet for next month | 1h 30m | ||
| Email, and tomorrow’s plan | 45m | ||
| Total hours | 7h 30m | ||
- What got in the way
- The supplier call ran long, so the budget sheet started late.
- What is next
- Finish the budget sheet before opening email.
We made the filled-in day up for this page. Leo works in an office, and this is his Tuesday. His 7 lines add up to 7h 30m.
Leo was at work from to , which is 8h 15m. The missing 45m is his lunch, which he left out. The client report took 3h 20m in two sittings, and email took 1h 25m. Before he wrote the day down, he would have had to guess both numbers.
Try it
Add up your own workday
The log below adds up a workday for you. It starts with Leo’s morning. Change the lines to your own and add the rest of your day, or clear it and start empty.
- From9:00 AMTo9:40 AM
This line: 40m.
- From9:40 AMTo11:30 AM
This line: 1h 50m.
- From11:30 AMTo12:00 PM
This line: 30m.
A new line starts where the last one ended.
Hours in your log
3h
From to is 3h. All of it is in your log.
- Lines
- 3
- Longest lineClient report, first half
- 1h 50m
Your work journal for the day: 3 lines, 3h in all.
Once you change something, your log is kept in this browser, on this device, so it is still here if you close the tab. Nothing you type is sent anywhere. “Clear the log” empties it.
During the day
What is a daily log?
A daily log is a work journal that you write during the day, one line at a time. Each time you start something new, you write the clock time and what you are starting. At the end of the day the lines are already there, and you only add up the hours.
A daily log has more accurate times, because you write each line while it is happening. An entry written at the end of the day is easier to keep up, because you only write once. Both work. Start with the one you think you will still be doing in a month.
Writing a line between tasks has a name of its own: interstitial journaling.
Why it helps
Why keep a work journal?
A work journal helps most on the day someone asks what you have been doing. That can be a yearly review, a talk about a raise, or an updated résumé. A review covers six months or a year, and without notes it is hard to remember what you did in the spring. With a work journal, you read back through the months and list what you finished, with the hours next to each thing.
People guess their work hours too high.
In a large US survey, workers were asked how many hours they usually work in a week. On average they said about 39.5 hours. Then the same people listed everything they did on one day, with the times. Added up, those days came to about 36.3 hours a week (Robinson and colleagues, 2011). A work journal gives you the number, so you do not have to guess.
How to do it
How to keep a work journal
You keep a work journal by writing at the same time every workday, and reading it back once a week.
Write before you stop work.
Give it the last five minutes of the day, while you still know when each thing started. A rough time is fine: “about an hour and a half, after lunch” is far more useful than no time.
Read it back every Friday.
Add up the week’s hours, and read the “what got in the way” lines. If the same thing shows up three days in a row, that is the thing to fix. Adding up the week is one step of a weekly review.
The test
How do you know your work journal is working?
The test
You wrote an entry, with its hours, on at least four workdays out of five
for four weeks in a row.
A work journal on paper means writing down every start and end time, and adding up the hours yourself. On a busy day, that is the part you skip.
A good way to keep one is to write or say what you did in your own words, and have the hours counted from that. Most journaling apps keep your words and how the day felt. They do not add up how long the work took.
One app built for this is Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app with time tracking built in.
You write or say your day in your own words, as it happens or all at once. The app reads what you wrote and counts the hours that went to each part of it: focused work, meetings, your commute, your phone, and the time you never mentioned (shown as unaccounted). Then it shows those hours over days and weeks. So you can see how many hours your work really took, each day and each week. The app also has to-dos with reminders, for what is next, and ticks each one off when what you write about your workday says it is done.
1. You write your day
2. It counts the hours
- Client report0m
- Meetings0m
- Sleep0m
- Unaccounted24h
3. It shows your week
Client report this week: 0m
On 5 of 7 days. The gaps are the days without it.
An example day and week.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.
Sources
Where does the finding on this page come from?
The finding about work hours comes from the study below. We read all of it for this page. The template and Leo’s day are our own.
- Robinson, J. P., Martin, S., Glorieux, I. and Minnen, J. (2011). The overestimated workweek revisited. Monthly Labor Review, June 2011, 43 to 53.
Keep reading.
- LearnAnswers about sleep, habits, study, people and work, in hours.
- Weekly reviewHalf an hour, once a week: seven steps in order, the questions to ask, and a checklist to tick.
- Time log templateStart, end, what you did, minutes. Then add it up.
- Interstitial journalingJournaling between tasks, a line at a time, all day.
- Where did my week go? calculatorEnter a typical day and see your week accounted and unaccounted.
- Time journalingThe method: write or say your day in your own words, then see it as hours.
Questions
Questions people ask.
What is a work journal?
A work journal is a short record of each workday. You write what you did, how long it took, what got in the way, and what comes next.
What is a daily log?
A daily log is a work journal that you write during the day, one line at a time. Each time you start something new, you write the clock time and what you are starting.
Is there a work journal template?
Yes. The work journal template on this page has four columns: start, end, what I did, and hours. Under them are three lines: total hours, what got in the way, and what is next.
Is there an app for keeping a work journal?
A notebook or a document is enough for a work journal. If you want an app, look for one that lets you write or say what you did in your own words, and that adds up the hours for you. One app built for this is Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app with time tracking built in. Think in Numbers reads what you write or say about your workday and counts the hours that went to focused work, to meetings and to everything else.
Try it on my day.
Write today down in your own words, and see where the hours went.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.