I’ve never been one to journal much, at least not in the “deep reflection” approach where I would write pages about what’s on my mind every day.

Interstitial Journaling

The journaling technique I started doing naturally is Interstitial Journaling, which is a log of my day as it happens.

I especially use Interstitial Journaling while I’m working. It has a couple of benefits (that may not apply to everyone): 1) At the end of the day, I know what I worked on and when, so I can enter the time in my timesheet. 2) I can copy these notes and run them through Microsoft Copilot to generate a nice, bulleted summary of each project I worked on and what tasks I completed. I then paste that into my daily update that each of us sends over Microsoft Teams every workday.

Plus Minus Next Journaling

The other technique that I started just this week is Plus Minus Next Journaling. It allows me to note what went well the previous week, what didn’t, and then list any changes I want to make in the next week. I feel like this could be a great technique to reflect and plan without being too complex.

Reflect

I’ve been using the Reflect notes app for both techniques. The Daily Notes in Reflect are perfect for Interstitial Journaling, and for the Plus Minus Next, I created a template that I can add to my daily note each week.