Writing Logs: Tools for Productivity and Accountability

Writing projects may feel insurmountable if we can't see immediate progress, something that frequently happens if the project stretches over many months or longer. Even when we work steadily toward our goal, making and keeping regular writing appointments, there may be times when we feel like we don’t have much to show for it. Not being able to see our progress can lead to feelings of frustration and discouragement. It can also derail us and lead to missed deadlines.

A writing log provides tangible evidence of the work completed on a project, allowing us to see progress made and giving us a rough idea of the work remaining. The log can also serve as an accountability tool by forcing us to chart efforts taken to reach our goals. Finally, depending on the information you record in your log, it can also help you identify emotional or behavioral patterns that support (or get in the way of) your writing.

The writing log doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. If you are a journaler or keep a writing notebook, you might just dedicate a few pages for tracking writing sessions, goals, and accomplishments. You could do the same thing with a Word document saved to your desktop. Or you might create an Excel spreadsheet that will allow you to run some simple analytics on your writing practice. For example, you might want to look at how many writing sessions you had in the last month, the total time you spent writing, and how many words you produced. Or you could look at words produced per session to get a sense of your average writing speed. Here’s a sample writing log in Excel that also offers space to jot down some notes about how you felt during the writing session. You may also want to add a column to note where you wrote. Over time, you will be able to identify some patterns concerning the time of day or location where your writing comes most easily. You might also begin to identify attitudes or behaviors that are getting in the way of your productivity.

Here are two other possibilities for tracking your writing productivity.

1. Burn charts. A couple of months, I began listening to the #AmWriting podcast. KJ Dell’Antonia, one of the hosts, is a big proponent of burn charts for managing her novel writing. A burn chart is simply a graphical representation of work left to do versus time to completion. Depending on the manuscript type, you might break the work down into word count targets, chapters, or sections. The burn chart can be especially helpful if you have a hard deadline for finishing a project, as it will allow you to see whether you are on pace for finishing on time. You can learn more about how KJ uses a burn chart here.

2. Time tracking apps. I have been using the free version of Toggl Track for several years—primarily to keep track of time on editing projects. Toggl Track has both desktop and mobile apps and allows you to create projects and tags to associate with your time entries. The tags could be things like reading, drafting, revising, or other activities associated with scholarly writing. Alternately, your tags might represent parts of the manuscript (e.g., chapter numbers, section headers). You also have a place to type more detailed notes about any time entry. When you begin a writing session, simply open the app and start your timer; it just keeps running in the background. For me, the most challenging part is remembering to turn the timer off. So, several times a month, I get a friendly nudge from Toggl, letting me know that my timer is still running. You can opt to receive a weekly report via email, check out your stats on the online dashboard, or download your time to a CSV file. One of the things that I find valuable about doing this kind of tracking is that it can help me see how much time specific tasks take, which makes planning for future projects more manageable.

Here's a screenshot of time tracked during a recent week, with work for a specific project displayed in gold and time spent on business tasks displayed in grey.

Whatever method you choose, you might consider setting some daily or weekly milestones and planning a mini-celebration when you reach that target. For example, maybe you savor a square of your favorite dark chocolate when you hit your time or word count goal for the day, or perhaps you watch an episode of a new binge-worthy series if you write for 5 days in a row.

So how about you? I’d love to hear about your strategies for tracking your writing progress and keeping yourself motivated.