I have been reading the many comments about how often to blog for design challenges and road tests and I decided to share my experiences with you.
When I began my career about 45 years ago I started working in a research laboratory and was handed a notebook and instructed to document my activities every day! Initially, I thought, what BS. What could I possibly do that is worth writing about EVERY day?
As time passed, things happened. First questions were always who did what when. As I was not taking good notes, I could not PROVE that I was not at fault. Luckily I was not in any of the critical areas, so I was not found at fault, but it got me to thinking.
So I began to carve out about fifteen minutes of my day to document what I did that day and to identify what I needed to do the next day.
Sure enough, my work got better. I got more done, and I had plenty to tell my boss when he asked what I had been doing.
Soon I found keeping my notebook to be invaluable. Especially if any urinal Olympics developed. A written, dated and timed comment always beat anyone else's memory. In a toss up, I was always right because I had a WRITTEN record of the events.
Through out my career I was able to win nearly every confrontational event because of my detailed notes.
So take my advice. Get a notebook and write down what you do every day. The process gets automatic with time and a weekly update blog becomes a trivial exercise of summarizing your notes, plus you will get accolades for providing good detail on your experiences.
Help yourself look good and learn a very valuable lifetime habit. Take good notes, write them down and actually read them at least once a week. You will eventually amaze yourself at just how much you get done.
And good writing skills make you look much smarter than you might actually be.
DAB
