i was just marveling last week about how jam-packed january has been on all fronts: between work and social events, and just the sheer variety of it all. somewhere between realizing i hadn’t cataloged my ever-growing list of guest-blog posts and this lingering feeling after recapping my retreat about how you can never really remember all the great things you did, i got to this point where i realized i needed somewhere to keep track of the smaller steps that lead to the bigger ones. i got the idea of making a book like this as a gift, because it can’t just be me who would like a cheering section in the form of a diary of gold star moments, but i figured i’d try it out first.

enter these fantastic scout books people have been making. luke mysse gave me one of the promotional ones he made back when we spent the day coworking. i’ve gotten a few from friends in the meantime, so rather than archive these as keepsakes [as i do with way too many things] i counted the pages and figured there’s a front & back for each month with room for extra. great! i got out a pen and re-learned once again that, without practice, my handwriting will always be terrible.

i wrote out everything i felt noteworthy and proud of for january, and a couple that got started for february this week. these are usually cool, new things i wasn’t doing before, or opportunities i feel lucky about, milestones with clients, or milestones on my own goals. getting it all down on paper made me happy about this idea all over again, so i’m going to keep the book at my desk and update it whenever i’m feeling good about something i did, or circumstances that go my way, or any time i realize hey, progress has happened!

oh, and see that “updated web content” item on the february list? i did finally catalog the guest-blogging, and never would have imagined this would have happened in 6 months, most of it in the last 3!

how about you, anyone else do something like this? i think it’s going to really help, come year-end assessment time. and before that, it will help anytime i’m having an off day of business pms.