So what’s the best way for a food truck owner to use the last 10 minutes of their day? Take this brief period of time to reflect on your workday: what invigorated you, what frustrated you, and what you plan to do next. Then write down 100 words about it in a work diary.

Become More Productive By Writing A Food Truck Work Diary

There are four primary reasons for keeping a work diary:

  • Focus
  • Patience
  • Planning
  • Personal growth

Keeping a regular work diary will give you a new perspective on yourself and what you need to improve.

Depending on what you choose to write, the exercise may serve to motivate you as you keep a record of your small wins, incremental steps toward meaningful goals. Or it may help you to plan if you use it as a tool for drafting your next steps. You may find that writing fuels your personal growth.

The diary can also be a way of working through your difficult events, helping you gain new perspectives on them. On frustrating days, it can serve as a reminder that you’ve made it through days that (at the time) seemed even worse.

How to Keep a Work Diary

Create a structure

Instead of starting with a blank page and filling it in after a busy day at work, create a template that includes some key questions or areas to cover. That can include any lessons you learned that day, compliments or comments you got on your work, something you accomplished that day, and what you can do the next day to accomplish even more. You may want a section in which you vent about frustrations on the job.

Travel with it

Bringing the diary back and forth with you from home to the truck has a couple of benefits. First, it means you won’t feel pressured to write in it during a busy workday. But you’ll still be able to jot down ideas as they come to you. Second, it cuts down on the possibility that your staff gets a hold of your diary. Make a habit of storing it in your work bag, so it’s there for you when you need it.

Look back every six months

Since the purpose of the work diary is to use it to get better at owning a food truck and to understand your strengths and weaknesses, you’ll need to actually use it to that purpose from time to time. Every three to six months, make a point of looking back at your entries. Take note of patterns in the entries.

At the end of each day recount what worked, what didn’t, and other random things that happened during the day. There doesn’t need to be a lot of structure, just merely a stream of thought that lasts about ten minutes.

RELATED: Turn The Stress In Your Life Into An Asset

The Bottom Line

A food truck owner’s days move very fast so it becomes that much more important to take a breath, and reflect on what happened during the day. Without the perspective of what happens in your work life, you can’t take satisfaction in your big wins, nor can you learn from our mistakes.

Do you have any additional food truck work diary tips, feel free to share them on social media. Facebook | Twitter