Log your personal development

You might like to maintain a log of your skills and personal development, and you might be required to do so as part of your research file. If so, log these as you go along. It can be useful for building your confidence, completing reflective aspects of assignments if required, and also for answering questions about personal development when applying for jobs. An example of how you might do this is provided below.

Action:		Date:		Log page number:		
What I bring already to the project?

Consider relevant personal strengths, qualities, skills, attitudes, habits, knowledge and experience. See page 18.	Focus for development?

Consider skills, attitudes, routines and qualities that you need to acquire or to develop further. See pages 18–21.	
		
When and how I will develop these

Consider which aspects you will develop before starting, and which you will develop through working on the project itself. Check that you build these into your Action plan, diary and project schedule, as relevant.	Resources

Find out and list the resources that you can draw upon to develop your skills. It might be through your course, an additional specialist course, a support tutor at your institution, study skills books, specialist tests on research methodologies, online talks, videos or other resources.	
		
Example 3: Project Progress log
Project progress log book (see page 14)	Log page number	2	
Student name:	Course:	
Date	Action undertaken	On schedule?	Completed?	
7/4/2025	Wrote new draft of questions for the online survey.	Yes	No. Finalise	
9/4/2025	Survey finalised, checked and launched	Yes	Yes. Now live