{Homeschool} Tip Tuesday: Keeping A Journal

Have you ever went through your school day at top speed, but at the end of it you can't really remember all that you did?

Does your husband walk in the door and ask, "So what did you do in school today?" and all you can remember is the laundry and housework that you did?

I assure you, more of what you accomplish will stick with you as your kids are older. But even then, and even if you are a planner extraordinaire, you can benefit from keeping a journal. (After all, planning can be fun and exciting, but execution doesn't always go as well as we planned because life happens, right?)

One of the hardest parts of keeping a journal can be deciding what medium you will use. For me, paper works the best. Recording everything on a computer leads to other things, like checking email or blog posts, and the next thing I know I've wasted an hour sitting at my desk.

Here is how I did it when I worked as an administrative and  engineering assistant for a local NASA contactor. I had a dated book, and I listed each task as I did it. Nothing too verbose; just a simple line to indicate what I did. It served not only to help boost my feelings of productivity at the end of the day, but it was also a great record to have, in case I needed to know when I did what.

Don't bog down with the format or expense. There is a plethora of journals out there, and an office-supply junkie like myself can obsess about the paper and the pen. A simple spiral or composition notebook will do (just be sure to date your entries).Keep it open in the kitchen or on a table somewhere close by, and every time you finish something with your child, jot it down.

And remember, brevity is the key to consistency, here. You are not writing a narrative, just a brief summary of your day's activities. Feel free to fill in the details later in the evening, but don't spend two hours staying up until midnight doing it, or you'll be too tired to get up the next morning, and your routine will tank.

Another fun thing about this is you may discover little notes or artwork added by your children throughout the day, which is another way to feel good about how your day went (even if it didn't go the way you wanted it to go).

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