The Logbook: ProInspire alum Alice Liu shares her method for capturing insights and accelerating goals
In a recent article on Medium, 2014 Bay Area ProInspire Fellow Alice Liu wrote about The Logbook System, a simple method she devised to capture thoughts, ideas, and learnings as a way to lead a more intentional life and achieve her goals. A more simplified version of a journal, the Logbook is hosted in a Google sheet and quickly captures the date, source, and learning in 1-2 sentences or a few bullets per entry. This method also allows Alice to more easily review past entries, identify patterns, and stay on track toward her life goals.
The idea for the Logbook was sparked in late 2015, when Alice helped to organize a panel of nonprofit Executive Directors for a ProInspire Managing for Success workshop. The panelists were asked about the keys to their success, and one mentioned the simple act of writing down his learnings in a journal every week.
Alice’s article highlights the value and clarity the Logbook system has brought to her pursuits, and shows how easy it can be to implement it even in the midst of a busy life. You can read an excerpt of the article below, or click here to read the full article.
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The logbook system: how to capture wisdom and accelerate your life
By Alice Liu
I get excited by a lot of things. I read voraciously, I love to brainstorm, and I’ll stop in my tracks in the middle of the street when an insight or idea strikes me. I’m always trying to learn and improve and grow.
But no matter how compelling those insights are, it’s easy to lose sight of them in the endless stream of modern life. If it’s something concrete like “If I’m going to work out, I should spend those hours investing in a skill like self defense,” I can at least put it on a to-do list. But what if it’s something like “the importance of fixed mindset vs. growth mindset”? I might find a lot of value in the idea, vow to live like this from now on, post it on Facebook, and forget it within a few days.
The most foolish feeling is when you come to an insight after an intense process and realize that you had, in fact, come to the same conclusion five months ago. But you had forgotten about it, so you traveled down a laborious path to learn it all over again.
What if you could drink a magic potion that would allow you to learn more potently? What if it enabled you to accelerate your career, deepen your relationships, and build an intentional life? What if it took only two minutes a day to use?
The Logbook System
I met the head of a well-known nonprofit at the beginning of this year who was asked about the drivers of his success. His response was so simple it was striking. “I sit down at the end of every week with a journal and write down my learnings.”
The idea intrigued me, so I decided to create my own version.
Click here to continue reading…
Alice Liu heads ecosystem efforts for MOTIV, which supports purpose-driven entrepreneurs and the funds that invest in them by surrounding them with the resources (strategy, capital, networks, talent) needed to scale critical solutions to climate change, sustainable food/ag, financial inclusion, wellness, and education. She formerly led San Francisco Green Drinks, a monthly environmental meetup with 3,000 members. As a 2014 ProInspire Fellow, she managed marketing efforts for Community Housing Partnership, a 300+ employee nonprofit that builds affordable housing for the formerly homeless. Before that, she helped found the National Geographic television series Bridge The Gap. Her passion is in bringing people together to collaborate on the world’s most pressing challenges.