Staying on Track and Daily Journals 1

[rquerin]

I've been told or have read many times throughout my schooling and intermittently through my worklife that it is important for an engineer to keep a daily journal in order to better limit liability, nevermind to stay focused and organized. Personally, I've tried doing this but get frustrated with it because I never seem to have time to do this 'bookkeeping'. I'm always pushing to put time in on several projects and meet deadlines. I know that I should, but I find it difficult to maintain. I keep design notes but not much of a daily journal.

I'd like to know other people's opinions on if they do it, what they do, how they do it, and for what benefit. Anybody want to share their tips or advice?

 

[Rjeffery]

a journal is not a diary that one brain dumps into at the end of the day. a journal is a log book that one records such minutia as mileage to and from job sites, times of meetings, weather events as they happen. the key is 'as they happen'. the form can be a PDA, a ledger, date book, even a diary. I use both the PDA and a surveyor's log book and the entries may or may not be duplicates but, are made as they occure. both are admissable in court as a memory aid.

I hope that helps.

 

[MRM]

I don't know about a bound journal, but I'm in the habit of writing handwritten notes to the respective project file whenever I talk to a client, particularly when we're discussing something I could picture coming back to bite me. That includes just about everything, I guess. It does take some time, but after a while it'll become a habit. In fact, it will start to feel strange when you discuss something with a client and you don't write it down afterward.

The notes also serve another important purpose in that they act as a reminder and help me remember when I've last contacted a client. keeping contact with clients before, during, and after an assignment is usually difficult for most people, myself included, but very important nevertheless.

ASFE (Association of Soil and Foundation Engineers) has published a number of very useful items describing techniques for project documentation and they give some really good examples of why it's so important. The ASFE deals a lot with geotech issues, but the project management aspect of ASFE is useful to all engineering disciplines.

 

[buzzp]

If your designing products, the journal should be a bound notebook in pen. No skipped pages, all numbered and dated. This journal can be used to fight patent issues if they should every arise. I find it to be a good project book, with todo lists, questions I need to answer, etc. It is also nice to have everything in one spot. I have a notebook for each project I work on. I keep track of my time on the computer (takes 2 minutes a day for this). Keeping track of your time is generally required by your employer but should be done anyway to get an idea of how long a project took you for estimating future project schedules.
As far as customer requests, I always try to get discussions in writing (email) so I have something to fall back on in the event of misunderstanding. A log I have wrote is usually not pursuasive enough as far as logging conversations. Good luck.

 

[rhodie]

I have nothing really relevant to add.

The method I use requires that I keep a IM login open at my house and work. I simply write notes throughout the day to myself; that is, I "chat" with myself. I record elements that have been discussed above- ie. client issues, project ideas, concerns, reminders, etc... (The "yell at the neighbor kids for leaving toys on my lawn" is almost a daily reminder to myself...&quot

The benefits of doing things this way are:

I can type much faster than I can handwrite.
Every entry is timestamped.
I archive the message log on both machines, daily. (redundancy = gud)
I never lose my journal through incidents of blind rage, coffee spills, or immersion in toilet water, as my last PDA learned the hard way.
This system's required materials are free, easy to use, and unburdensome to maintain.
I have never forgotten an important date since I began using the system- birthdays, anniversarys, holidays. (...like I'd forget holidays, anyway!

Anyway, use whatever works, right?

 

[Binary]

I think it's a great practice. Part of why I do it is to keep track of where my time is going.

I've set up an Excel template which is a weekly timesheet. I simply type in the time in one cell (with a nifty little VBA routine that lets me do it with just numbers, no ":&quot and then whatever I want to keep track of in two adjacent cells.

One is for a job number or quick reminder. The second is for more detailed notes including the locations of files, notes in log books (ditto to buzzp), etc.

One thing I like about this approach is that I can use Windows to do a global search for strings in all of my timesheets. Makes it very easy to go back and find things later.

I've tried the PDA thing and the day planner thing. My problem is that I type so much faster than I write so I get frustrated being limited to manual info entry. Also, it's tough to find things later, sometimes (at least when I'm too lazy or busy to get my monthly summary done).

 

[cosmicchris]

A journal is a good way of organising yourself. I do know people who can store away information in their heads like a squirrel stores nuts, but I can't.
My tried and tested method is detailed below and i've since discovered that psycologists believe it to be very a therapeutic way of relieving stress (the action of "marking off" a completed job is good for you apparently)

1. A yellow highlighter for important stuff that must be actioned.
2. A blue highlighter struck through the yellow for completed tasks (the colour mix then turns it green).
3. Striped blue through the yellow for task started but not yet complete.

No need to highlight it all. A small stripe near the margin will suffice. Referring back to journal entries becomes much easier because of the highlighting and status colours.
Red pens can be used for extremely important stuff but you may end up with a reputation for being a bit of an artist and not much of an achiever if people see you with an array of pens at your side