Progress Makes A Good Day

Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer asked knowledge workers to fill in a short diary at the end of every workday: how they felt, how motivated they were, what they worked on, and what stood out. Twenty-six project teams from seven companies took part, 238 people in all, and the study yielded nearly 12,000 diary entries.

When they compared people’s best and worst days, one event stood out. Making progress in the work, even a small step, happened on 76% of the best-mood days; setbacks happened on only 13% of them. The worst days were nearly the mirror image: setbacks on 67%, progress on only 25%. They called it the progress principle: of all the things that can lift someone’s inner work life during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work.

One caution. In that study the diary was the research tool, not the treatment: it measured how people’s days went, it did not test whether keeping a diary makes days better. What it does show is what to look for when you write one. Progress is easy to miss in a busy week, and a log is where you can see it.

Writing Down What You Learned

The second piece of research did test writing directly. Giada Di Stefano, Francesca Gino, Gary Pisano and Bradley Staats ran a field experiment at Wipro, a business-process outsourcing company, in a tech support centre in Bangalore. During their initial training, one group of employees spent the last 15 minutes of each day, from the sixth to the sixteenth day, writing and reflecting on the lessons they had learned that day.

On the final training test, that group did 22.8% better than the control group. The researchers’ explanation centres on confidence: those who reflected felt more competent and effective than the control group, and that sense of self-efficacy came with better performance.

What To Write

A work log works when it is short enough to write every day. Three lines are enough:

  1. Done. One or two things you finished, in a few words.
  2. Moved. Something that went forward, even if it isn’t finished. This is the progress Amabile and Kramer found on good days.
  3. Stuck. What blocked you, and the first step to unblock it tomorrow.

On some days, add one line about what you learned: a mistake you won’t make again, a shortcut, a better way to ask a question. That is the part the reflection experiment tested.

A numbered list keeps the three lines in order from day to day, and indented bullets hold the details without cluttering the top level.

When To Write

At the end of the day, before you close the laptop, while the details are still fresh. Five minutes is plenty. If the end of the day is chaotic, write it on the way home, or first thing the next morning before you open your email.

Reading It Back

A log you never read is a diary. The value comes when you look back.

Common Mistakes

A Work Log In Tuttodì

Tuttodì opens on today, so the log is always the next line. Use a numbered list for done, moved and stuck; indent the details. The home screen widget and the “Write today” shortcut get you there in two seconds. Search finds every day a project name appears, and earlier days with notes sit right behind today.

Sources