"What did I learn?"

I had a meeting with Teri Aulph a few weeks back; Teri is AWESOME by the way and she has an amazing book.  If you are working, you need this book, if you are On The Hunt you need this book.  So, just go get the book.  Teri also tweets some really good stuff.  If you tweet, you should follow her, I do.

Anyway, Teri and I were talking about day planners and Moleskins.  Neither Teri nor I are totally loyal to any particular format or product but agree that you should always have some kind of paper & pen with you ALL THE TIME.  (To quote Teri) "When I write something down, I own it.".  The process of writing things down helps your memory and offers you an archive that you can refer back to in the future.  It is also a wonderful system for self-awareness and improvement.

I agreed that I always carried a planner with me and Teri offered a suggestion.  "At the end of the day, write down three questions near the bottom of the page and answer them.  This gives you a quick view of the day and what was important.  Reading through your answers to these questions will show you things about yourself you may not have known."

Question #1 "What went well?"
What did you do today that went well?  Did you accomplish something?  Did you have a meeting that was positive?  Did you help someone?  Any positive experience can be written here.

Question #2 "What didn't go well?"
Bad meeting?  Miss a goal?  Negative interaction with someone?  A negative experience is a learning opportunity, don't hesitate to answer this question.

Question #3 "What did I learn?"
Did I learn something from a positive or negative experience?  Did I have an opportunity to learn something new?  If I could walk through this day again, would I do something different? (If you answered "yes", you probably learned something!)

I added a little formatting to my questions (I'm OCD).  Before the question I add a "*" and before the answer I tab in and add a "-" (or course I don't really 'tab'; I'm writing on paper!!!).  it looks like this...
*What went well?
-Great meeting with Teri.  Very positive person, she has an attitude that is not only positive but contagious.
*What didn't go well?
-answer written here
The formatting makes it really quick to glance at the page and read through the answers.  Remember the suggestion came from Teri but you can make any changes you like.  Mold this into something that works for you and you will be more likely to do it every day.
I don't complete the questions every day but I try.  I also don't kick myself when I miss a day.  I just write an answer to "What did I learn?" as "Need to try harder to answer these questions every day, important."

I have tried this for the last few weeks and found I enjoy answering the questions at the end of the day.  I've also realized it will give me insight to my sometimes cryptic notes regarding a specific day.  In a digital world it is very easy to forget the importance of writing on paper.  I am a BIG fan of pen/paper and can't promote "write it down" enough.

As a side note...
If you take nothing else from this post, I sincerely hope it has encouraged you to get a pen/paper system of some kind.  I have a $200 Franklin planner that stays at home.  It's a beautiful leather binder, holds up to 3 months of two pager per day pages (among other things), has slots for business cards and... IT IS HEAVY.  The nice, pretty Franklin planner, sits at home, on my desk.
When I'm out, I carry either an 8.5X11 notepad or what I call "yellopad" its an Ampad, 1 subject notebook, wire-bound, 80 sheets, narrow ruled, 8X5 inches.  It's not pretty, in fact the color makes it stand out and scream "I am not an expensive trendy Moleskin!".  I like it and so I carry it.  I'm OCD and my system means I write notes more than once (everything eventually ends up in the Franklin!).  I like the system because "if once it good, twice is better".  Maybe thats true, maybe its not.  The important point is that I like my system and therefore, I use it.


Find a pen/paper system that works for you and that you like.  Get a cheap notepad & a 25 cent pen.  Get a Moleskin, a Franklin (love Frankilin BTW) but get something!  Don't be afraid to experiment and switch things around, maybe try different pens, or try a multi-pen (different colors in one pen).  Try different papers, maybe you like artists notepads?  It sounds appealing to me, a nice clean sheet, no lines or grids, just clean white space I can write notes on.  The following guidelines may help you to build your own pen/paper system.

1) Plan to carry this EVERYWHERE.  Your sisters house, meetings, interviews.  I'm serious, this thing should always be in your hand.

2) #1 means it should be light, small enough to not get in the way or be a hassle to carry but big enough to write in.  (I really like the 8X5 size)

3) Find a pen or pencil (I'm a big pencil guy) that you like.  Something that writes smooth, and that doesn't interfere with the process of writing.  Does your pen smudge?  Does the smudge bother you?  If it bothers you, try a different pen, if not, keep writing!

4) Plan to archive.  Write the date at the top of each page (you can have more than one page for a day, remember there are no rules!).  This is not only a system for helping you keep track of today, today; but it's also a system to help you keep track of today, 5 years from now! (I mean this.  I needed to build accomplishments for my resume.  I didn't have copies of my annual reviews so I read through 10 YEARS of Franklin archives.  Two pages per day, notes on every page.  Those notes helped me remember some really incredible things I had forgotten about.  You never know when you need to take a walk down memory lane.)


It is always my hope that what I write helps someone.  If I've helped you, let me know in the comments.  If you keep a day planner of any kind, I would LOVE to hear your comments.  What do you use?  How does it work for you?  Any pen or a special pen? (I love Uni-ball micro fine pens!)




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