Journal With Impact: Vocation Feedback

Workshop: Six Conversations for Writing Creative Journals

“Organizing is what you do before you do something that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” A. A. Milne

Because, not only does everyone have their own style of organization but so does each project. And whether you are dreading setting up comprehensive files or rubbing your hands in anticipation, there are two main factors to keep you on track. Keep it simple. Keep a backup copy. Remember any form of organization is a tool to get you through your project—and not meant to be a project in itself. Unless of course it will help you decompress on a panic day.

There are so many ways to organize feedback and so many excellent tools on the market that will help with any style you choose, whether by hand or by technical support.

Again, keep the logs, or other methods, as simple as possible. Their purpose is to save you time and not create more work. Here are three possible ideas to consider.

Process Feedback Suggestions

Daily log: list work accomplished, work undone, work not visible, working relationships, potential problems, first thing to do next, and brief comments about your feelings or attitudes.

 Each day take a few moments to read over your notes before beginning again.

Project Log: clarify notes, changes, what worked, what flopped, what needed more time, participants, season of year—anything that could change next time. What dates or quantity expectations MUST you meet? Make changes as needed.

Suggestion: keep a duplicate record. One friend cooked for multi-size groups for various functions. She had a notebook where she not only kept the different sets of measurements for different quantities, but also on each recipe wrote down notes as to what worked—what didn’t—if she had to substitute or any other pertinent decisions. One function, when she prepared a meal for over one hundred people, her notebook went missing after doing preliminary preparations the day before. It did turn up just in time, but was enough of a panic to cause her to begin making a binder copy.

Supplies and Record Log: research, interviews, photos, any repeat material required.

Example: One friend has a large extended family and the gift of knitting. So each Christmas, her nieces and nephews receive hats or scarves or leggings or mittens. To avoid duplicating gifts and also remembering who liked which colors, she writes down each project right down to stitch pattern, needle size, and type of yarn. On a sidebar she keeps track of which relative received that style in what year and what color to avoid duplications. Her family eagerly anticipates their personalized gifts.

Action Steps:

1. Set up these feedback logs and over the next three weeks fill them in whenever appropriate, especially the workday logs.

2. Watch for any positive or negative repetitions.

3. Note how much time you spend on each of them.

4. Do you find that keeping the feedback also helps you focus more clearly on the next day’s objectives?

Share: Which log did you find comfortable and which one did you struggle with?

Read deep, marcy