A work journal to stay organised and informed

Emails start to pile up. Meetings demand attention and consistent follow-up. Add some unrelated stress to the mix, and here I am, resuming my bullet journal. However, a bullet journal cannot really contain all the information needed to complete my tasks.

Enter the work journal.

I don’t know whether that’s a thing, but I’ve been wanting to set one up for some time. Here’s what I did.

The concept

Information is shared through various channels: emails, Teams chats, meeting notes, recordings, transcripts, and more. I needed a single repository to collect everything to avoid wasting time searching aimlessly for something.

I decided to try with a spreadsheet: great for tables and cross-referencing, not so much for longer text.

My personal files are organised with Obsidian, using Markdown. I replicate that setup, creating detailed documents as .md files, storing them in structured folders.

In practice

The main document is a spreadsheet divided in four sheets:

• Tasks list
• Daily log
• Decisions log
• Knowledge & references

Each sheet features a table with items assigned unique IDs for cross-referencing: Tasks = T-00x, Daily Log = DAY-00x, Decisions = D-00x, Knowledge & References = K-00x.

Tasks list

The table contains:

• Task ID
• Task description
• Related files — links to a document or a detailed .md file
• Related discussion — links to an .md file in the Daily log sheet
• Related decisions — links to a file in the Decisions log sheet
• Related knowledge & references — links to a file or link in the Knowledge & references sheet
• Due date
• Task status — a drop down with colour-coded options (Not started, In progress, Complete)

Daily log

The table contains:

• Log ID
• Log date
• Link to the day’s log .md file

A daily log file details the meetings that have occured, and everything of importance. Notes and actions from meetings, conversations, and anything that might be relevant. The daily log should be consistently reviewed, and is linked to a task when related.

Decisions log

The table contains:

• Decision ID
• Decision date
• Link to the decisions’ .md file

If the questions “What did we decide?”, and “Why did we decide that?” sound familiar, the decisions log is the place where to look for the answers.

Knowledge & references

The table contains:

• Knowledge ID
• Date
• Link to a web page or to the knowledge’s .md file

A knowledge & references file contains resources and information that relate to the task.