With Deb Koen Careers consultant

Reflecting on your career tends to take a back seat to demanding schedules and work priorities. In the New Year there's no better way to remedy this than by keeping a career journal. This takes only a little time each month, yet the rewards are tenfold in career focus and effectiveness.

Whether you're a student, postdoc or mid-career scientist, making regular diary entries will give you an opportunity to reflect on your current state and future direction. And because your journal is intended for your eyes only, you don't have to worry about being judged on your career goals or your writing skills. If you've made your resolutions for the New Year, a journal will keep you on track. If you're lacking career direction, it will help you focus.

The discipline of regular writing will prompt you to clarify your strengths and passions, identify gaps in expertise and tune in to personal development needs. By tracking progress over time, the journal will help you learn from mistakes and build on your strengths. The act of writing will solidify your thinking and serve as a catalyst for action.

Choose a notebook or create a PC file that will be immediately accessible when you want to capture a fleeting idea, need an outlet for your frustrations or have a reaction to a recent event. In addition to notes that you jot down spontaneously, schedule a 'journal hour' to recap each month.

Take a varied approach to writing. Start the hour with 15 minutes of uninterrupted and uncensored freestyle writing. Record whatever enters your mind about your career. Don't stop.

For a more structured recording, select a career-related theme and write away for 15–45 minutes. Topics might include peak moments at work, family influences on your career, work–life balance or lack of it, your sense of 'fit' in the organizational culture, potential career derailers, priority development needs, or trends most likely to have an impact on your career.

Now pull out a pen and notebook, or pull up a chair to your computer and start documenting the unfolding drama of your career.