"Captain's log, Stardate 1513.1. Our position, orbiting planet M-113. On board the Enterprise, Mr. Spock temporarily in command. On the planet, the ruins of an ancient and long-dead civilisation. Ship's surgeon McCoy and myself are now beaming down to the planet's surface. Our mission, routine medical examination of archaeologist Robert Crater and his wife Nancy. Routine but for the fact that Nancy Crater is that one woman in Doctor McCoy's past."
First ever episode of Star Trek, first words (source)
Star Trek is a long-running television series loved by many but ignored by the rest; despite it all, it has impacted our culture in a way that sometimes is hard to understand, but many of us use 🖖 emojis or have some sort of visual representation of Spock (at least I have, and I was not a fan of that TV series). And I would like to bring one more heritage from Star Trek to our world: captain's log.
In Star Trek, the log is used as a captain's information system for missions and ongoing situations; it starts with a date and description of the current situation, observations and performed actions. Of course, it was not invented by the creators of Star Trek, but they did a fantastic job in popularising the phrase: captain's log. Before Star Trek, it was and is used as a ship journey log, describing what happened while sailing from one port to another, what maintenance jobs were done, etc., presenting the history of where the ship was and why it's in the state as it is. These records help captains look back and know what they need to do/fix or prepare themselves for before the next trip.
I was introduced to the captain's log by coincidence. During one of my mentoring sessions with Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick (authors of the book Agile Conversations), I was asked to create my captain's log so we could have input data for our mentoring sessions. This came up as, for me, it's hard to say where I have problems/challenges that I need help with or would like to work on. Captain's log was sold to me as a tool that might help. And boy, it did! But it took time, and my ADHD has a problem with time, a big one.
Captain's log gave me a better overview of my daily work, exposing slackness and procrastination. I have improved tremendously on these two by using a log as a personal feedback loop on what's working and what's not. Also, in the long run, it gave me a good understanding of how the organisation works and where we can improve it. It also exposed the lack of my soft skills and where I should improve. It also exposed my emotional state and how it influenced my communication and discussions. Generally, a small tool that helps me improve as a leader, communicator and IC in the organisation. Additionally, helping me expose things that I can work on with my mentors.
And this post is about how you can use and hopefully benefit from it.
purpose of captain's log
I started writing the captain's log to have a short history of a day that does not go into details about specifics. For meetings, we have meeting notes; for technology discussions, we have documents or a second brain (a notes system). What is missing is a short summary of the day which is is the secondary purpose of the log: write down what happened during the day, states of facts. Secondary? Yes! The primary purpose is to be able to look at the log and retrospectively act on the entries as a personal feedback loop tool.
Entries can be brief as:
during 1-1 meeting with Tom, a possible MySQL upgrade issue surfaced about charset.
As well as have a longer form, such as:
during the town hall, heated discussions emerged around the lack of visible improvements in developers' lives and the lack of delivery of promised time to work on fixes instead of chasing business features. Management did not react to accusations and later called a meeting with the Principal as they should address these issues. Should they?
However, in the weekly retrospective (yes, one thing that we should be doing), we can pick up a few things that we can work on or might need help with. The first is the charset in the new version of MySQL, and the second is engineering morale in the organisation. Having that, we can prioritise work or ask our managers about priority and, if needed, delegate.
Summary:
To be able to look back and see how and where we can improve.
To provide a record of what had happened and what was done.
captain's log entries
Important thing: only some days bring entries, and that's fine. It's just a tool, not a must.
I like entries that are short descriptions in a format that is not judgmental. However, I like adding my feelings and thoughts to retrospectively examine why it makes me feel this way (in Star Trek, they used a personal log). Also, it's a good indication if I should be following something now or once I cool down. Entries are also clear from blaming/insults and name-calling. I want to think of them as something that can go public (or be exposed in the organisation) one day, and I will not need to be ashamed of them.
For instance, I prefer to have a version like this:
We had a meeting that went sideways; I felt that I was under attack and blamed for the current situation. I feel angry and exhausted.
Than:
That f*cking jerk Tom took over a meeting and then shot me with 100 questions, blaming me for everything when he is not doing his job and never did f*cikg jerk.
It's about experience and my feelings, not how nasty someone else is.
So, the form of the entries is up to you—whatever works for you. Just consider that long entries with lots of details might be too much to write daily and too much to review each week. Find a balance that works for you.
If you would like to be able to use your log as an input for mentoring, be professional :)
Summary:
Short entries are beneficial.
Find the form that works for you.
Be professional, and think of a log as something publicly available.
It's just a tool, not a must. Don't force yourself to create an entry if you don't feel there is something to write down.
implementing captain's log
The best answer is that it depends. What works for me might not work for others. However, here is my approach, and it suits nicely with my workflow.
For a few years, I've been using Roam as my primary note-taking tool, but there are others like Obsidian, Logseq, and many more. Even the one you already have should be fine. Roam has this nice feature of daily notes implemented by default—each day, you get a new note with a date. This is my entry point. Each day, my entries are added to a specific date, and then, just by scrolling, I can get all the notes that I need or search for a specific word.
The benefit of having dates managed by Roam is that he knows if I skip a few and while scrolling, it omits these empty days.
I'm trying to fill out a log once a day. Sometimes, in a fever of emotions, I add entries to remember how I felt, but generally, I leave a log as the last thing to do in a work day. It takes me around 5 minutes, and I'm done. It has typos, it's not perfectly structured, etc., but it doesn't matter to me. What is important is the content and that I can understand what I have written.
There is, however, a slight twist to my entries and implementation; I like to tag things that I see as problematic, challenging, negative or positive. I use four simple tags (sometimes I add other tags, but just to group things up, usually one-timer):
#problems - for describing something that I should work on or tackle. You can use other wording, but the problem is that the right word is in the right place for me. I like adding a /todo switch to the #problems so I can tackle them and mark them as done later. Not all problems are problems to be tackled; some are just a tag to check if, in the future, it is actually a problem or if it was my bias/pov.
#pros - something that is positive. I saw a positive impact when doing or practicing it. For instance:
#pros: I used active listing to repeat to Tom what he said, which caused a second thought and led to the drop idea at the end.
#cons - something that does not work, tested the idea, and it didn't work.
#lessonslearnt - something I've learned during a day, like TIL.
Having all the entries in once a week, I'm reviewing what was happening and what difficulties I had during this week, or maybe some positive things too? Nevertheless, this review usually creates a list of small to-do lists, nothing fancy. However, it helps me to have something to work on next week that I find problematic or repeat things that worked. This feedback loop guides me on where I should put my mind or what things I should avoid - you do not need to be the best in everything! Just find your niche and be the best in it :)
Once per month, I review last month's log and all tags; again, this gives me a broader view of how things are going, whether there is progress, and where I'm struggling. For example, this showed that I'm really bad at planning (plan implementation of that feature that will take 5 months), as bad as it could be, but I'm great in emergencies. I can easily take control, plan the next actions, and execute them. I thrive in chaos.
Summary:
Use a tool that works for you, Graph-note-taking tools are the best.
Figure out when adding entries works best for you - just after or once per day.
Review weekly and monthly.
Take a closer look at when you have reacted emotionally. Think why and what was a trigger. Sometimes, things outside work might have influenced you; be aware of them.
Look for patterns and think about how you can improve or where you are strong; plan using your skills in the next week/month if possible, and again, iterate over notes :)
Use tags to be able to quickly find challenging places
captain's log vs journal
Why not call it a journal? For me, a journal has connotations that come with it. Something private where I can write nasty, gritty things about me and others. Something that I don't want to be exposed publicly. And I can elaborate as much as I can going on and on.
Meanwhile, the captain's log is tight, clear, and short and can surface without consequences. However, you can call it whatever you like, such as a work journal, retrospectives etc., or whatever works. For me, what's important is that it should be separated from your life and that it is work-related.
example
A sample true entries (in ASC order for clarity of events) (names removed) from my log
DATE-W
I had a lot of meetings, but my head was not there like I had a brain fog
DATE-X
#Problem /done During a conversation about microservices, ABC and I had a heated discussion that took over the meeting
I am not sure what triggered me
DATE-Y
During 1-1 with ABC, we were going on why we have so many heated discussions (recent one DATE-X), and we came to an agreement that it is just a pure misunderstanding of how we treat comments (personal vs about design/approach)
DATE-Z
The team escalated our ABC heated discussions; this could have been avoided if we had communicated with the team that we are GOOD #lessonslearnt
DATE-&
I've been to the meeting that I've learned I should be leading, and it was my fault I should have chased my manager about missing meeting details. I'm so pissed. #Problem /todoThese entries are not perfect, but they do not need to be. They are not about technical details; they describe situations/experiences and sometimes my feelings. Some are useless entries, and some are not. Some action was taken based on the entry, and some were marked to be solved. I don't know how yet, but I have input that I can work on when I calm down. For instance, if on DATE-& i would immediately call my manager after that meeting, it would not end well :) I can promise that :)
Summary
Captain log is a way to gather information about our work days in a short form that lets us improve on things that we struggle with and repeat things that we are good with. It also serves as information about how the organisation works and how your work fits into it. As an IC, this is something that is really important: we are usually responsible for finding things that need our attention and working proactively to fix challenges before they become problems. To be able to do this, we can have a six-sense or a good log of what's happening so that we can extract patterns from it. We also need to be good at communication and leadership. We can wait for external feedback or work proactively to improve ourselves with tools that we have, like the captain's log.
I'm not saying this is the solution to all of our problems, but it's a tool that had a huge impact on me and my work, and I think it's worth trying out.
And when you do, please share your experience!
🖖
BTW: & used to be the 27th letter in the English alphabet; hence, I decided to use it in example dates as I was running out of XYZ letters. ;)