Journal Entries

When you adopt People Work's system, you become more intentional and strategic about your interactions and commitments. That is valuable by itself. But over time, you'll also want to know whether your actions are working. That is where journaling comes in.

Looking back on my professional history, I knew many people who were good at making me feel good in the moment. They said the right things. They expressed interest. Then nothing happened, or even worse, negative things happened.

Other people might have been less flashy, but they supported me. They took action. They believed in me. They were people I delighted in helping.

Without journaling, you'll take a bunch of actions with this app, but you won't recognize that second group of supportive, action-oriented people. Regular reflection helps you see clearly how things are actually going.

To support that reflection, we ask you to capture three elements in every journal entry: what happened, a simple sentiment, and how you felt about it.

1. Observations (What Happened)

Observations are the objective facts of what happened. This is not how you feel about it, just what occurred.

"We talked about her consultancy and how she's struggling to attract new customers. She's used to getting referrals but that has dried up."

This field helps you be action-oriented about your follow-up. What actually happened, and what are you going to do about it? It also provides clarity in a performance management situation, where the facts are essential to reaching fair conclusions.

2. Sentiment (High-Level Feeling)

A simple signal for how the interaction felt: positive, neutral, or negative.

You don't need to overthink this. It's a gut check. Over time, sentiment trends across a contact or group reveal patterns that individual entries can't show, like a relationship that's been slowly drifting negative or one that's improving since you changed your approach.

3. Comments (Feelings)

These are your feelings, reactions, and reflections. This is the private space where you process what an interaction means to you. There are no good guys or bad guys here, just feelings.

Sometimes this is a single line:

"Feeling good about this."

Sometimes it's multiple paragraphs working through a difficult conversation. There's no wrong length. The point is to get your honest reaction down while it's fresh.

Here's a complete journal entry:

Event: Meetup
Observations: We talked about their new app, which helps small businesses manage their accounting.
Sentiment: Positive
Comments: I'm feeling great. I think we have a lot in common.

If Journaling Feels Hard

Sometimes this work will feel overwhelming. When it does, we recommend:

1. Keep it short. Don't write a novel. State a few words about what you talked about and how you felt. If you can't remember the interaction, skip it!
2. Use AI. Talking conversationally with an assistant about your day can feel much more natural. Just make sure AI acts as your assistant rather than your ghostwriter, and you'll be done in no time.
3. Go on a walk with Voice. I like to use ChatGPT Voice while I'm doing the dishes or going on a walk to catch up. Talking it through also makes the reflection more meaningful to me.

When to Journal

Journal after an event or commitment while the details are fresh. You don't have to do it immediately; reflect when you're ready. See Tasks for details about journal-task timing and rescheduling.

Conclusion

Journal only enough to support better action. The goal is useful reflection, not collecting data for its own sake.

When you journal your actions, you go from "I think things are going well with Alex" to "Over the past three months, our 1:1s have trended positive, and here's what we've discussed." This clarity in relationships will allow you to show up for the right people with the right context.