We were all sat around the table when I mentioned my that I keep a journal about what I am working on. Every one of them seemed surprised. More so when I mentioned that I write on it multiple times throughout the day.

The concept of an engineering journal is nothing new. As a matter of fact it was much more common in the old days and mostly among field engineers.

The idea is simple and powerful: To keep track of whatever the engineer is working on during the day, to serve as a scratchpad, to serve as reminders list etc.

Just that. Empty your brain, write in the journal.

I keep one (electronically) and feel very good about it. I think you should too.

Here's how I do it:

  1. One simple markdown/plaintext file.
  2. Every day I added the day's date at the top of the file.
  3. Below it I take my notes with no particular structure.

That is it.

Jorge