Notes, Docs, or Logs? Choosing the Right Way to Track Your Work

The documentation dilemma

You know you should track your work, but where? Your note-taking app is a mess. The company wiki feels too formal. Task management tools track tickets, not accomplishments. A spreadsheet seems tedious.

Choosing how to track work effectively is surprisingly hard. Each approach has tradeoffs, and the wrong choice leads to abandoned systems and lost information.

Let’s break down the options and help you find the best way to track daily work for your situation.

Understanding the landscape

Before comparing tools, let’s clarify what we’re actually trying to capture:

Daily work. What you accomplish each day—tasks completed, progress made, blockers encountered.

Decisions. Why you chose certain approaches, alternatives considered, tradeoffs accepted.

Learnings. New skills, insights, patterns discovered during your work.

Achievements. Notable accomplishments worth remembering for reviews, interviews, or career reflection.

Different documentation methods for engineers optimize for different combinations of these.

Notes vs work logs: What’s the difference?

The terms get used interchangeably, but there’s a meaningful distinction:

Notes

Notes are freeform and topic-oriented. You might have notes on a specific project, technology, or problem. They organize information by subject rather than time.

Strengths:

• Great for reference material
• Flexible structure
• Good for deep technical documentation

Weaknesses:

• Hard to see chronological progress
• Information can become scattered
• Difficult to summarize “what you did this quarter”

Work logs

Work logs are chronological and accomplishment-oriented. Entries are organized by date, capturing what happened when.

Strengths:

• Easy to review time periods
• Natural for status updates and reviews
• Shows progress over time

Weaknesses:

• Less useful for reference lookup
• Can feel repetitive
• May miss contextual information

The hybrid approach

Most people benefit from both: notes for reference material and logs for tracking accomplishments. The question is whether to use separate tools or find something that handles both.

Popular documentation methods compared

Plain text files

Simple, portable, and always available. A dated text file for each week or month works surprisingly well.

Best for: Minimalists who want zero friction Drawbacks: Limited search, no structure, easy to lose files

Notion (or similar tools)

Flexible databases, templates, and linking make Notion popular for personal knowledge management.

Best for: People who enjoy building systems and have time to maintain them Drawbacks: Overhead of setup and maintenance, can become overcomplicated

Apple Notes / Google Keep

Simple, synced, and always accessible. Good for quick capture without friction.

Best for: Quick daily logging with mobile access Drawbacks: Limited organization and search capabilities

Spreadsheets

Structured rows and columns can work well for tracking accomplishments with metadata.

Best for: Data-oriented people who like filtering and categorization Drawbacks: Tedious to maintain, not great for freeform text

Dedicated work log tools

Purpose-built tools like JotChain are designed specifically for tracking work and generating summaries.

Best for: People who want work logging without building a custom system Drawbacks: Another tool to learn (though typically simpler than general-purpose alternatives)

Task management tools (Jira, Linear, etc.)

Some people try to use ticket tracking for work logging.

Best for: Tightly coupling work logs to specific tickets Drawbacks: Misses untracked work, optimized for tasks not accomplishments, information is hard to extract

How to choose the best way to track daily work

The right choice depends on your priorities:

If simplicity is paramount

Use the simplest tool that you’ll actually use. A plain text file or basic notes app beats an elaborate Notion setup that you abandon.

If you need searchability

Choose something with good search. Work logs become valuable when you can find “everything I did related to authentication” quickly.

If you want summaries and synthesis

Look for tools that help transform raw notes into usable outputs—weekly summaries, review materials, or status updates.

If you’re on a team

Consider whether you need shared visibility. Some tools support team-level tracking; others are purely personal.

If you switch contexts frequently

Mobile access and quick capture matter more. Choose something you can update from anywhere in seconds.

Common mistakes to avoid

Over-engineering from the start. Start simple and add complexity only when needed. Most people never need the complex system they design initially.

Choosing based on features, not usage. The best tool is the one you’ll consistently use. A feature-rich tool you don’t use is worthless.

Mixing reference and log. Keep reference notes (how things work) separate from logs (what you did). They serve different purposes and have different lifecycles.

Making entries too long. Long entries create resistance to writing. Keep daily entries brief and focused.

Not reviewing periodically. A work log you never read provides limited value. Build in time to review and synthesize.

A practical recommendation

If you’re not sure where to start:

1. Week 1-2: Use the simplest option—a text file or basic notes app. Just capture a few bullets each day.

2. Week 3-4: Evaluate whether it’s working. Are you capturing consistently? Can you find things? Is the friction acceptable?

3. After one month: If the simple approach works, stick with it. If you need more structure or features, try a dedicated tool like JotChain or build something in Notion.

The goal isn’t to find the perfect tool. It’s to build the habit of tracking your work. Any tool that supports that habit is a good choice.

The meta-principle

The best documentation method for engineers is the one that matches how you actually work. If you’re on mobile a lot, you need mobile access. If you hate switching apps, keep everything in one place. If you love structure, build structure. If you love simplicity, stay simple.

Don’t copy someone else’s system. Understand the principles—capture consistently, keep it searchable, review periodically—and implement them in whatever way fits your workflow.

Your future self doesn’t care which tool you used. They care that you tracked your work at all.