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Basically, there are two advantages of keeping a journal:

1. The process of writing something down forces you to think it through until you understand it.

2. Storing pieces of knowledge or experience saves you from reinventing the wheel.

However, these are potential benefits and they will not come to you automatically. Writing a journal is an investment of your time. Unless you find that you get more out of it than you put into it you will quickly stop doing it. But like with most investments it is not always easy to know if you made the wrong investment or if you should be doing it differently.

Rule number one

You have to stay with it for a while before you make a decision. An empty journal has no value. Depending on how much you write, you should give yourself at least several weeks before you can expect to be able to see the benefits.

Rule number two

Make it easy for yourself to enter text. Maybe the most neglected issue in this context is that you have to learn how to type using ten fingers. This is actually a minor investment that will pay off big. It will not take you longer than two weeks to get used to it. The nice thing is that you'll get enough exercise while you write your journal. Only learn the basics and keep writing! There is no excuse at all for not learning how to do this.

Rule number three

Start writing now and get organized while you write. Keep i*write™ open and take some notes whenever you come across an activity that gives you the feeling that you will be doing this again in the future and may have difficulties remembering the exact steps. A good idea would be to collect this kind of notes in a How To ... category. Here are some categories that have proven useful again and again:

• How To ...

• Favorite Mistakes (How Not To ...)

• Goals

• Achieved

• To Do

• Done

• Ideas

Take a little time at the end of the day to go over your daily notes. Do you still understand what you wrote? If you wrote down a procedure or a How To ... topic, follow the steps mentally to make sure everything is correct and complete.

Rule number four

Keep yourself up to date about topics like self-management, goal-oriented planning, project management, (technical) writing, and others. These are all basic tools of the trade for any professional - no matter what the specific profession. For starters, you may want to have a look at How to write, speak and think more effectively by Rudolf Flesch.