I originally published this post in September 2021 and updated January 2022. I changed many things in my method because I changed jobs, and I think it's useful to show how I adapt it to a work that it's not organized in sprints.
I reached a method to make my notes for work after many tries. The main goal was to have it simple to update, easy to find information, and that fits the scrum process used where I work. My method has many inspirations that I'll quote in the middle of the test.
The tool that I use is Obsidian, but I think the structure will work for any other because it's not essential to use backlinks or the graph view, features found in Obsidian and similar. I highly recommend Obsidian because it saves your notes locally, in plain text and have many plugins by the community.
New Process
Now at work, I use four folders:
Daily: One note per day. It has the template.
### Calendar
--- I copy my agenda here and include some notes ---
09:00 Meeting with stakeholder
- Need to show the report and ask for some resources.
15:00 All Hands
### Tasks
--- A checklist with the things that I plan to make today,
notall things that I need to do. My tasks are in a Jira board.
I update it every morning looking into the board. ---
- [ ] Make the query for the team
- [ ] Apply changes in the work
### What was good today
--- A gratitude area. Some cool things that I'm proud that I made
or something nice someone made. I complete it by the end of the day. ---
### What to do next
--- Include some follow ups based in what I finished today.
Every morning I see this part from the note of the day before.
It's not a checklist, it's more reminders for the next day. ---
Weekly: One note per week. I have it because I have a weekly 1:1 with my supervisor and this meeting it's like personal and planning for the week. The template it's like:
Subject:
- Points to talk
Sometimes I include something we talked about here after the meeting.
OKR: One note per quarter because the OKRs are organized per quarter. This note I update along the quarter with ideas for the next quarter. For the current OKRs, I update most points in Confluence, since the projects are happening and the documentation need to reach everyone.
Brag Document: One note by performance review frequency, in my case, three months. The name of the note is like 0,25Y Brag Document
This template is made by Julia Evans and I changed a little for my needs.
I update the note along the way, but I try to look into it every Friday (so I'm sure I'm updating it). I think it can be easily adapted to follow your performance reviews frequency.
Old Process
When I worked in sprints, I had the notes organized in three main folders: Sprints: One note for each sprint in the template below. I update twice a day, one before the daily and second as the last thing before I finish my day.
2021 W29-W30
#W29
## 2021-07-19
---This part I write every morning before the daily---
- [ ] Need to do today
- @someone should send me that
---This part I write when I finish the day---
(Check the topics above that were done)
- What happened this day
- Next steps and considerations for tomorrow
## 2021-07-20
(...)
# Retrospective
- Points that I want to separate for the retro, this can appear everyday
# Planning
- Points that I want to separate for the planning, this can appear everyday
This template was improved based on this post by Leticia Portella where she describes her method. I always made in similar way as she describes, but after see her example I started to include more links like her, to have the things more connected and easy to find.
Brag Document: One note by quarter Same template by Julia Evans Every end of sprint, I update the quarter note and made a small note to be used in the 1:1 (that happened every two weeks) with more direct points (max. 3). This small note I liked to send my manager, so we can have an agenda for the meeting.
Projects: One note per project I try to include things that I want to add in the documentation, things that I learned in that project and general information that I know I'll forget easily. This template is more chaotic than the rest, every project I made differently. At the end of the project, I try to put a header with:
What I learned
What I think about the result, how satisfied I am
What I didn't liked
What can be done next
And that's the current and old structure, I hope some ideas fit your work log style. I don't spend much time with it, so I can maintain it daily. As I said, I use Obsidian that have a template feature and a plugin for daily notes that make thing even easier.