Hopefully, you’re now convinced that writing is a valuable skill to develop. But you might wonder how to write more and how to improve. You’re in luck, we’re going to discuss just that!
Putting aside the importance of habits and routines, which we explore in 02. Habits, routines, systems, processes and methods, writing more comes down to witnessing opportunities for doing so. There are countless situations where writing can help you and others achieve your goals. Let’s explore some of those reasons, considering the dichotomy between personal and professional writing.
At work, there are various situations where writing adds value for yourself, your team, and the whole organization. Here are a few you should notice and take advantage of:
If you organize meetings, then you should write a clear agenda for your meetings. It should include the key points to discuss, the important decisions that need to be made, reference information for the participants, and an ideal schedule.
During meetings, you should write down the key points: what was discussed, which decisions were taken, actions that need to be performed, and by whom. After the meeting has ended, you should share those notes with the participants, and ideally with the rest of the organization, so that interested parties may also consult the meeting minutes. Meeting notes are valuable for teams and organizations. They can be leveraged in various ways. We’ll explore some of those in 13. Work.
While you work on projects, you should write down your project goals, the work to be done, the realizations of the project team, and documentation for whatever you have created or changed. You should also write clear progress reports, describe the risks you foresee, the issues you face, etc.
As a team member, you should help document your team’s and department’s processes in a way that enables anyone in the group to perform those. Clear processes are valuable, as we discuss in ‣ and 13. Work.
You should also document the “systems” in place, the reasons why they exist, their purpose, their usage, recommendations, and best practices. Clearly documented systems are better understood and better used.
You should also write memos describing your ideas for improvements. These memos can be key to approaching disruptions, enabling transformations, evolutions, and innovation. Those are useful both at the tactical and strategic levels. Simple evolutions and major changes can be kick-started by clear memos. Those are useful artifacts that can help you convince others, create a shared understanding of what you’re proposing, and allow others to comment and improve your proposals.
If you’re a project or team leader, then you can also document how your group is structured, who is responsible for what, where to find or store information, etc. You can also write down clear guides for newcomers. Team documentation helps you explain what your team does, how it does it, how to contact, when, etc. This can help in various ways.
You can also write down your tasks, the work you have done, the current state of things, what prevents you from making progress, etc.
You can write about what you learn, and allow others to learn along and help you expand your knowledge.
Last but not least, you can keep track of your progress, your realizations, your ideas for improvements, etc.
Everything that you write down can be valuable and have a long-term impact on you, your career, your team, and your organization.
It’s easy to get lost in the daily rush. You rush in the morning to prepare, yourself, bring your kids to school, drive to work, etc. When you get back, maybe you need to go to the grocery store, take care of the washing machine, prepare dinner, and whatnot. But if you never take time to write, you miss important opportunities to check in with yourself.
Journaling has been one of the key practices in my life. I try to write every day in my journal. I don’t always succeed, but every time I do, I feel better. We’ll explore journaling in detail in the next pages, but rest assured that there’s a lot more to it than “just” exploring your thoughts and emotions.
Periodic reviews are also very valuable. Every week, month, quarter, and year, you can take some time to look back and forward. You can use those opportunities to think about what went well, what didn’t, why, and what to do next.
There are many things you can write about: