Hello and welcome to the eighth day of the June 30 days writing challenge. If you want to know all the details about this specific challenge, have a look at the introductory post. In short, I will be posting every day a short tip, or technique, or opinion, something that you can call a "life hack". Feel free to join the challenge and post your own life hacks. I will do my best to upvote each day at full strength (about $3 at the current STEEM price) 3 posts tagged #challenge30days (leaving a link to your posts in the comments will also help).

Keep An Activity Log

This is different from journaling, which has its own entry in this challenge (meaning I will write about it later on) and it's mostly related to whatever you call "work".

Now, you may already use some sort of a planner, or a task manager, or a fancy app for keeping in sync with your colleagues. That's fine.

But on top of this, I found it very useful to just write down a list of what I'm doing each day. After each small task, I just write down in my storage of choice (more about that in a bit) whatever I did. As for choosing a storage, I would go for the simplest journaling app. I use one called MacJournal, actually, for almost 10 years, and it's still going on strong.

So, at the beginning of each day, I copy whatever I have in my past entry into a new entry, and delete whatever I already did. Here's an example of an entry:

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• Wednesday
  -- wrote 3 articles on Steemit
  -- answered 2 emails for possible cooperation
  -- monitored my witness server
• [here I just leave some space between what I did and what I want to do]
  -- to read this interesting article on mining Bitcoin on Raspberry Pi
  -- buy milk
  -- do this errand, etc

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Now, next day, Thursday, I just copy ALL the content of the entry, but delete what I already did. Here's how the Thursday entry may look at the end of the day:

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• Thursday
  -- wrote 2 articles on Steemit
  -- read this interesting article on mining Bitcoin on Raspberry Pi
  -- monitored my witness server
  -- bought milk
• [here I just leave some space between what I did and what I want to do]
  -- do this errand, etc
  -- to renew this domain name
  -- to pay your Internet bill

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As you can see, it's really lo-fi, the most basic way of keeping track of what you're doing.

Now comes the interesting part. If I would want to know when exactly I did a specific thing, I would just do a search on the specific journal (or you can do a search in the folder where you keep these documents, if you're using text files and not an integrated app). I never lose track of a specific task I did, which comes in very handy, especially in the work related stuff. Apps may crash, todo lists may have limitations, but a lo-fi, simple and bare lists of what you just did is way more resilient.

Sometimes I even look back at a certain day and realize I did way more than I planned to.

Not to mention that the very habit of writing down the things you just did will, in time, build a subtle sense of accomplishment that will boost your optimism, and yes, also your productivity.

I'm really curious to read about your life hack today. Leave a comment with a link to your post, if possible.

Previous Posts In The Challenge

• June 30 Days Writing Challenge - Life Hacks - Day Seven: Implement A New Habit With A 30 Days Challenge
• June 30 Days Writing Challenge - Life Hacks - Day Six: Put It In Front Of The Door
• June 30 Days Writing Challenge - Life Hacks - Day Five: The Pomodoro Technique
• June 30 Days Writing Challenge - Life Hacks - Day Four: Keep A Clear Mind By Unloading Ideas Immediately
• June 30 Days Writing Challenge - Life Hacks - Day Three: Intermittent Fasting
• June 30 Days Writing Challenge - Life Hacks - Day Two: The "2 Minutes" Time Management Rule
• June 30 Days Writing Challenge - Life Hacks - Day One: Avoid Fighting With A Simple Visualization Technique
• Announcing The June 30 Days Writing Challenge - Life Hacks

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I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.

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