What’s in a Prompt? A 5 Minute Journaling Exercise for Researchers

As I have mentioned previously on the socials, I’m trying to start a journaling habit. I try to do it at the end of the day as a wind down, but sometimes I’ll write something in the morning too.

Just like in LLMs, I kind of feel the magic is in the prompt.

Ask the right questions, get the right answers, solve the right problems.

This is pretty much like any research project.

To be clear, these aren’t ‘ground-breaking prompts’, but they are targeted for time efficiency; both in the time it takes to write them out, but also in the time it takes to action them.

I journal in a physical notebook, away from screens. Just one page at a time so it isn’t overwhelming. It’s just a quick digest exercise to highlight the most important things, the things bothering me most and some simple things I can do to help things keep moving.

Here’s my favourite evening prompts at the moment:

What three things went well today?

Always nice to start on the positives! Sometimes I don’t get three, sometimes I get more. These are nice to look back on and see the good times. They are at the top of the page so easy to flick through and see.

Here’s an example, from Wednesday this week:

• “I asked more questions [than the previous day]”
• “I came up with an offer [for my course]”
• “I wrote some of my literature review”

And three things that didn’t go so well?

These highlight the areas I need to improve. The idea is to stop seeing small things cascade into big things. I also don’t want the same things appearing every day.

Again, sometimes there is less than three — a good day — and sometimes there are more. As long as I maintain some kind of equilibrium between the two, we’re all good.

Here’s an example, from the day previous, Tuesday, to the one above:

• “I didn’t explain [how a water retention curve works] in simple enough terms”
• “I didn’t ask enough questions” — too much showing and telling!
• “Didn’t manage to time in my own work”

The third one I use changes form a little. It’s about identifying the important things to do the next day. These could be priorities, skills and/or behaviours. I’ve noticed if I have too many big things, they don’t all get done. Therefore if I write three, they must be quite small.

What three things can I do to demonstrate leadership skills tomorrow?

Sounds pretentious, but they are important habits for careers. It’s effectively saying; how can I be a better person tomorrow? (🤔 I think I might try that instead; a bit more me!)

This also keeps my finger on the pulse when it comes to identifying my strengths as a leader, along with continuing to learn what skills and behaviours great leaders exhibit.

And the example, following on from Tuesday’s negative things:

• “I will ask more questions — curiosity — like ‘what do you think’ and ‘what are your thoughts/reflections so far’”
• “Give more hands on experience”

What three things can I do tomorrow to move the needle 1% forwards?

A little nod to James Clear here and his fantastic book, ‘Atomic Habits’.

This prompt is about identifying all those little small things which gain traction and can grow in size to be unmanageable over time.

For example, I’m planning on making a course about note-taking and I made a note about creating a roadmap for its development; I ended up making a roadmap for my thesis instead…🤷‍♀️ Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough in the steps I had to take.

What’s the one thing I need to work on to keep things moving?

If there is something particularly bothering me, this is aimed at dealing with that. What is the one next step I need to take? This is a refined prompt based on three being much less likely to all get done.

Limiting it to just one thing to do is great for focus.

Whichever one I use out of the last three, I like to go back and tick these off for a little boost of self esteem and personal fulfilment. In the example above, I managed to tick off all the two things I listed. Success!

Three questions, one page a day and a sense of personal progression and fulfilment.

Give them a go and let me know how you get on.