The Number One Difference Maker
When building a reputation, you need to do a few things:
Number One: Do good work.
Number Two: Don't piss off too many people.
Number Three: Gain recommendations, testimonies, and references.
For over a decade, I have been coaching founders, executives, and leaders of all kinds and will always ask for some kind of 'number three'.
Recently, there has been a recurring theme in their responses. Many have commented that one of the best habits we've built together is a regular journaling practice.
But they all say it with the same sense of surprise, basically amazed at how much difference it makes to the quality of their work, decision-making, and overall ease of being.
They tend to be a little embarrassed about it, for much the same reason I used to get a bit offended by it. When I work with someone, we put so much energy, resource, time, and general effort into the partnership. The lowest-cost initiative shouldn't be the highest-value element.
But it is. Or at least it plays a massive part in overall process.
Much like a 'dishy' in a commercial kitchen: they may be the lowest-paid team member, but they are missed dearly if they call in sick!
The Pro Game of Journaling
Journaling makes its biggest impact when done cumulatively.
Do it once: It's better than not doing it at all.
Do it a few times: It helps to build strong mental connections.
Do it a few times a week for months or years: All of a sudden, the world becomes a lot less complex.
I encourage my clients to draw on James Clear's Atomic Habits to build this routine. Habit Stacking is a fave of mine. One client journals immediately after eating breakfast - their theory is: "if I eat breakfast, then I journal".
Another tactic is making the habit impossible to miss. If the journal lives on your work desk staring at you every day, it's hard to ignore. One client leaves theirs directly on top of their keyboard overnight. Impossible to miss and gets their day off to strong start.
There are four opportunities from Atomic Habits. Begin with just one prompt or trigger. Starting is by far the hardest part.
Atomic Habits explains the four ways to form a habit. All of these are practical options we can implement for our own context.
Image credit: Move Sports Physio
(This diagram illustrates "The Habit Loop" with a central circle divided into four quadrants labeled Cue, Craving, Response, and Reward, surrounded by four speech bubbles offering strategies: “Make it OBVIOUS” and “Make it SATISFYING” on the left, “Make it ATTRACTIVE” and “Make it EASY” on the right.)
Now, What Do I Write!?
In The Leadership Journal, I created a weekly Captain's Log. I'm not a Trekkie, but I've always loved the reference to Captain Kirk's famous line in Ace Ventura Pet Detective (if I've lost you on the Pop Culture references then ask a 90's kid about them).
As a leader (who I see as a captain of their own ship, so to speak), you benefit hugely from logging your thoughts twice a week:
At the beginning: A bit of planning.
At the end: A bit of reflection.
In The Leadership Journal I give a few intentional spaces for these two stages of your week:
Let's Begin...
Most people prefer doing this on a Sunday evening to sleep better and avoid the 'Sunday Dread'. Whatever works for you, journaling your intentions sets a clear trajectory:
Goals: When working tactically, being clear on what you want to achieve that week is critical. Put metrics to them. Re-writing monthly, quarterly, or yearly goals in this same space keeps your eye on the prize and connects 'today's' tasks with the overarching direction.
Friction: This is all about the obstacles stopping you from achieving aforementioned goals. Inspired by Mental Contrasting, this is one of the most powerful ways to help us hit our goals. This also forces us to pull our head out of the sand on a regular basis - ignorance never gets the job done.
Play: This isn't about relaxing, time off, or messing about; it's about experimentation. What are you going to try? What are you going to dabble with? What are you going to play with? As adults, we often lose our sense of play - yet it's a critical pathway of learning and innovation. If a leader isn't running regular experiments, work becomes a dry, dour, and slow fade into irrelevance.
Observation: What are you keeping an eye on? It might be a person, product, system, client, or competitor. Back in my retail days, I would sit in waiting areas or lean against shelves in a quiet corner just watching how people interacted with space, used tools, or behaved. These real-world insights yield value no report or spreadsheet can match.
Now We're Done...
Reflective journaling is our sensemaking moment to try and understand the meaning, significance, and general understanding of what has taken place. A personal review of what has passed.
What is working? Among hundreds of tasks and meetings in your week, which ones are yielding actual progress? Which ones are helping you hit your goals? Which ones are giving you and your team the best Return On Effort? Acknowledging these forms patterns and confident decision-making.
What will I focus on next week? Building on 'what worked', this space gives you an opportunity to think about what is most important for the coming week while you are in a reflective state. It asks our brain to take learnings from the past and put them straight to work for the future.
What can I iterate? High-impact change usually comes from 5-degree tweaks, not wholesale changes. Stand-up comedians are famous for this - they'll die on stage for months trying to make a great joke in their mind work in real life. They'll deliver it slightly differently every time until a joke lands. Small iterations create transformative shifts over time. This is our version.
What will recharge and refresh me over the weekend? Rest is a discipline, like any exercise or work regime. Washing the car, laundry, weeding the lawn, or going to that 'social obligation' will squeeze out any real recovery if you aren't intentional. All those parts of 'adulting' still need to be done, but setting aside explicit time or activity to recharge your battery is worth a few minutes of thought and a sentence or two.
Sample layout of weekly 'Captain's Log' pages from The Leadership Journal. The repetition is where the power lies. With 5 Quarters' worth of logs, it builds consistency that lasts.
(This image displays a “Captain’s Log” reflection template for Q1, divided into “Beginning of the week reflections” on the left and “End of the week reflections” on the right.)
The Freestyle Option: Conscious Streaming
The only other journaling I recommend is freestyle. Conscious Streaming is the act of letting the pen move without any tangible focus. Just let words spill out.
This isn't writng you'd ever want others to see, but the jumble happening inside our minds can become a lot less jumbled once pen hits the paper. Whenever I get in a tizzy, I sit down and scribble it all out - sometimes it even turns into a poem of sorts! Once I'm done, I've got it out of my system.
Most times, I don't even re-read it. The act of handwriting forces my thinking to slow. Putting structured language to the spiraling lightning strikes in my mind creates immediate continuity and calm.
The thoughts become real, easier to understand, and - oddly enough - far less important, dramatic or catastrophic.
The Bottom Line
Build the practice. This low-to-no-cost activity is a weapon of mass impact for any leader. It acts as a coach in your pocket, and when combined with intentional discussion and collaboration, the arc of progress is truly transformative.
In a rapidly changing environment and highly digitised world, creating space for quiet clarity through journaling will only become more important and valuable.
