Why a work log is worth two minutes
By December, most of what you did in March is gone. A log gives you the facts for reviews, promotion cases, a new resume and the question "what have you been working on?" It may help you learn, too. In a field study at a Wipro call center, trainees spent the last 15 minutes of each day writing about what they had learned. They scored about 23 percent higher on the final training test than a group that kept working.
What to capture
- What you finished, shipped or moved forward
- What came of it, with a number if there is one
- Who you helped, and who helped you
- Decisions you made, and why
- Problems you solved, and how
- Thanks or praise you received, in the words used
- Something you learned
An end-of-day routine
- Before you close the laptop or on the way out, take two minutes
- Say what you did today
- Say what came of it, or what you expect to come of it
- Say what's next tomorrow
- Tag the entry with the project's name
From log to brag document
A brag document is the short list of your wins you hand over or use at review time. The daily log is the raw material, and a few minutes now and then turns it into the list.
| When | What to do | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Every workday | Record what you did, what came of it and what's next | 2 minutes |
| Every Friday | Skim the week and note the one or two things that mattered | 10 minutes |
| Every quarter | Turn those notes into a list grouped by your goals | 30 minutes |
| Review time | Edit the list into your self-review | An hour |
Keep it yours
A work log on your own phone is a personal record. Follow your employer's rules about confidential information, and leave out customer data and anything you couldn't keep at home. Describe the work in your own terms instead.
A work log in Dawn Light
Say "Record a Dawn Light entry" to Siri as you leave a meeting, or tap the sun at the end of the day. Tag entries with a project name and filter the Journal tab by it. Search finds a client or project name across the year. With Plus, each entry is laid out as what happened, how it felt and what's next. Ask can answer "When did we launch the new pricing page?" from your own entries.
Questions about work logs
What is a brag document?
A running list of what you've accomplished at work, with results and the people involved. It makes self-reviews and promotion cases much easier to write, because the evidence is already collected.
How detailed should a work log be?
Detailed enough that you'd understand it in a year. A project name, what changed and one number or name is usually plenty.
How do I get my log out for a review?
In Dawn Light, Export everything in Settings makes a file with every entry as Markdown, JSON and PDF. You can also search a project name and read the entries back.
Sources
Log today's work in two minutes
Talk for two minutes on the way out of work. Dawn Light keeps it as a dated entry you can tag by project and search at review time.
Get Dawn Light freeUnlimited entries, transcripts, search and iCloud sync. For iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Works with iOS 26, iPadOS 26 and watchOS 26 or later.