Why You Should Track Your Accomplishments Weekly

I’ve always been more of a habit builder than a planner.

Setting a simple routine by adding one or two new activities to my day usually works better for me than meticulously mapping out every detail of my life. I enjoy the freedom to improvise my schedule as needed and usually rebel against a heavily orchestrated plan.

The one part of planning I feel like I miss out on is having an exact roadmap of where I’m going.

Due to the relaxed way that I move through my days I feel like I have less precision than a detailed plan might allow for. So, I started to devote a little time at the end of the week to review my accomplishments both personally and professionally.

Essentially, tracking my accomplishments weekly is a way to ensure I’m trending in the right direction in relation to the goals I have.

The soft living version of goal chasing

I want to say from the outset, I hesitated in writing this blog post because I feel very adamant about not adding to the plethora of self-improvement content on the internet. So much of it is based on being very harsh with ourselves. This idea of tracking accomplishments is not to optimize your life, it’s to add a little structure and rightfully celebrate your own wins without being obsessive about it. With that in mind, I hope you find something useful here that you can add to your own routine.

Doing a weekly recap can help you see how you spent your time

Before this, I relied solely on my daily journaling practice and a few lists to record my days. While journaling helped me reflect daily, my accomplishments ended up being scattered throughout pages of thoughts and ideas, making them hard to revisit.

Creating a dedicated weekly recap has added clarity and structure to my self-reflection. This simple practice helps me stay motivated, adjust as needed, and truly appreciate my efforts.

The Benefits of tracking your accomplishments weekly

Stay Motivated

One of the biggest benefits of tracking your accomplishments is the instant boost of confidence it provides. It’s easy to feel like you’re not doing enough, especially during slower weeks or when life gets overwhelming. However, seeing your wins written down can completely shift your perspective. Even the smallest accomplishments, like finishing a book, completing a household task, or hitting a mini-goal at work, can give you a sense of pride and momentum. Weekly tracking helps you focus on what you’ve achieved, keeping you motivated to keep going even when progress feels slow.

Reflect and Adjust

Weekly recaps also provide a valuable opportunity to step back and evaluate where your time and energy are going. Are you focusing on what truly matters? Are you neglecting your long-term goals?

For me, this habit has helped me realign my priorities when necessary. It’s not about judging yourself but about creating space to pivot and make intentional changes. For example, if I notice that I’ve let creative writing slip during a particularly busy work week, I can prioritize it the following week. These small adjustments ensure I’m consistently moving forward in areas that matter most to me.

Celebrate the Process

Tracking your accomplishments isn’t just about end results; it’s also about appreciating the process. Life rarely moves in a straight line, and progress often comes in fits and starts. When you document what you’ve done each week, you start to see that consistency is what truly drives success.

Prepare for the Future

When it comes to professional growth, weekly accomplishment tracking is a secret weapon. By regularly documenting your wins, you create a running record of your contributions and progress, which can be incredibly valuable during performance reviews, job interviews, or when updating your resume.

Instead of scrambling to remember what you’ve achieved over the past year, you’ll have a detailed account of completed projects, metrics, and moments when you went above and beyond.

How to start tracking

If you’re ready to start tracking your accomplishments, the good news is that there’s no one-size-fits-all method. Here are a few approaches to consider:

• Journaling: If you’re a fan of traditional pen-and-paper methods, dedicate a section of your journal to weekly wins. This can be as simple as listing three personal and three professional accomplishments at the end of each week. Adding the date and a brief context can make it even more meaningful.

• Digital Notes or Apps: Tools like Evernote, Notion, or Google Docs are great for creating a running log of your achievements. You can tag entries, add context, and even organize them into categories for easy reference.

• Spreadsheets: For those who love structure, creating a spreadsheet can be a highly effective way to track progress. Include columns for dates, accomplishments, metrics, and any notes about challenges or lessons learned.

• Calendars: Use your daily planner or calendar to jot down one accomplishment per day. This method works well if you already rely on a calendar for scheduling.

What method do I prefer? I gravitate toward making a list in an ongoing document. The advantage of this is that I can copy and paste easily when I need to collate a list and I also can put the entire thing into ChatGPT and ask it to give me a summary of the year. Also, I already reserve writing in notebooks for my actual journaling practice.

The main idea is to choose a system that feels intuitive and sustainable for you.

What to track

Knowing what to track is just as important as deciding how to track it. When it comes to work you might jot down anything with quantifiable results, challenges overcome, and projects finished. When it comes to your personal life it could depend on the goal you have. For example if you want to read or learn more you might note the content you consumed. If you have a health goal of drinking a specific number of cups of water a day you might track how many days out of the week you did it.

Why tracking what you’re doing weekly is worth it

Tracking your weekly accomplishments can transform how you view your time, energy, and progress. When I look back on my weekly recaps, I can see where I’m growing and where I might want to spend more time. I get a picture of where I’m headed.

Some weeks are busier than others, and that’s okay. What matters is taking the time to acknowledge what you’ve done and using that awareness to keep moving forward in an informed way.