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Something I want to try this Year.. Daily After-action Reports

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Padlock6:
Something kinda related, that I have done since 1988.  I used to keep a yellow legal pad (now .doc) at my desk by my phone.  Every phone call starts withdate, Company-name, then any notes about the call.  It has saved my bacon on numerous occasions when I couldn't remember a quoted price, or who said exactly what.
On the PC, I can highlight in red my action items, and reformat when completed.  Every 6 months I start a new .doc and store the old one for history. 

Now back to the original post...

SKesselman:
Somewhat counter-intuitively, one thing i suspect might be important is to set aside some time at the end of each day to fill it out, rather than writing it as the day goes on.  I think filling it out at the end of the day would make it more useful as a contemplative experience -- rather than a mindless log of minutia.
-mouser (May 17, 2009, 11:09 AM)
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Hi mouser,
have you tried keeping an as-you-go log? If not, you might want to.

I keep one when I start to worry about how I'm spending my time & it's always pretty informative. I've found that the end of the day summary never gets completed before bed. It just makes roll my eyes, like when I have to take my vitamins or something...it almost seems faster to keep a log as I go, AND I don't miss anything, like I sometimes do if I have to recall it several hours later.

One nice thing about a log is that, as we know, once you write something down, it's easier to remember.
But it's also easy to remember when you wrote it, as you flip through your daily logs, looking for something.

I do use a spreadsheet-like card for Y/N things I have to do every single day, things that are easy to forget (like taking my vitamins) and it's very helpful. It's taped to the inside of my cupboard. It's 31 down, 10 across. Without that, I'd never know what I didn't do, or when I didn't do it ;)

Sorry if this has already been mentioned in a GTD book or whatever - I'm not familiar with the latest systems, tricks, etc., just suggesting something that works for me  :)

shift3r:
this all reminds me of the saying about 'taking so many photographs while you are on holiday that you... '

SKesselman:
I was thinking that one thing i would really like to start doing this year is to prepare a kind of one page "after-action" report form that i would fill out after each day, to record what i did each day.
I think it would help ensure I am making good use of my time.

Thoughts? Anyone already do this? Any suggestions for what the form would look like?-mouser (May 17, 2009, 11:09 AM)
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Sorry I missed the middle of your original post, where you say you don't want to log throughout the day  :-[.
(Kind of makes my first reply irrelevant.)

But if at the end of the day, the time of day happens to be relevant to your activities, here's what I'm using, starting in 2010.
I wish I could start today, but I love the pre-printed times and dates  :).

Something I want to try this Year.. Daily After-action Reports

It's roughly 8" x 6", but they also come in full size.
I think it helps to continue your logs, in case you get lazy or tend to forget to do it...
For myself, I like the times so I can use it as a tracker. If every day at 3PM I'm supposed to do something, I can flip through it and see the days I didn't follow through. Although my goal is to eventually have none of these entries to find  :D. We'll see...

Paul Keith:
IMO reports are too much of a hassle. I just create an after-action goal/GTD context and put anything on it when an event occurs.

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