When you start a new job, journal for five minutes a day in the first weeks: write down names with roles and one personal detail, what surprised you, questions you do not want to ask twice, and one thing you understand today that you did not yesterday. Keep a running list of what you have learned, because feeling like an imposter around week six is common and competence grows faster than belonging. Note concerns with dates but wait about three months before judging whether the job is right, unless the issue is conduct. This guide gives prompts for the first day, first month and first 90 days.
What should you write in your first week at a new job?
Write names with roles and a human detail, the questions you are afraid to repeat, and the unwritten norms you are trying to understand. Separate what you know from what you are assuming.
- What became clearer today?
- Who made it easier to ask a question?
- Which task gave or took energy?
- What do I want to understand next?
How do you track progress in a new job?
Review weekly for what feels less unfamiliar, which relationships are forming, and where expectations remain unclear. A first impression is useful context, not a permanent verdict.
Save small wins that would become invisible once the work feels normal.
Why write down first impressions of a new workplace?
The first two weeks in a new job give you something you will never have again: an outsider's view of the place. Within a month it will be gone, absorbed as normal, and it is genuinely valuable while it lasts.
You can see what is odd about how things are done, what people complain about, who is actually consulted regardless of the org chart, what the unwritten rules are, and what surprised you. All of that becomes invisible fast, and it is exactly what a newer colleague will need from you in six months.
It is also useful to yourself. Several months in, when something has begun to bother you, the first-week notes tell you whether it bothered you immediately or whether you have drifted, and those are very different situations.
Write it as observation without judgment. You do not yet know why anything is the way it is, and most first-week explanations turn out to be wrong.
- What surprised me today, however small
- What did someone explain in a way that suggested it is a sore subject?
- Who did people say to ask, and who did they actually ask?
- What is done here that would be done differently elsewhere?
- What am I pretending to understand?
- What do people complain about in the first week of knowing me?
Why do you feel like an impostor around week six?
These are two different curves and conflating them causes a lot of unnecessary distress in the first months.
Competence returns fairly quickly and is measurable: things you could not do a fortnight ago that you can do now, questions you no longer have to ask. Belonging is slower, less linear, and largely outside your control, it depends on the team, on timing, on whether anyone happens to be leaving or joining.
The mistake is reading a lack of belonging as evidence of incompetence, which is extremely common at around week six, when the initial welcome has worn off and you are not yet part of anything.
So keep a running list of things you have learned, concretely. On the days when you feel like an impostor, the list is the correction, and it is a considerably more reliable one than reassurance.
What are journal prompts for the first 90 days?
Use one question a week after the first month:
- What do I understand about how decisions really get made here?
- Who has helped me most, and have I thanked them specifically?
- What does my manager care about most, based on what they actually ask about?
- What is one early win I could deliver in the next month?
- What still feels unclear about what is expected of me?
- What habit from my last job helps here, and which one does not fit?
How do you handle anxiety before starting a new job?
Some nerves before a new job are normal and usually fade within the first few weeks as things become familiar. Writing helps by making vague worries specific: list what you are worried about, then next to each one write what you would do if it happened. Most worries shrink to practical questions, such as who to ask about systems or where to eat lunch.
Plan the first morning in detail, including travel, what to bring and the first person you will meet. A defined start reduces the sense of walking into something unknown.
When should you judge whether the job was a mistake?
Not before three months, and preferably not before six, with one category of exception.
The first weeks are a poor sample. You are tired, incompetent at things you used to be good at, and socially unplaced, a combination that would make almost any job feel wrong. First impressions formed while you are tired, new and unplaced are often a poor guide to how a role turns out.
Write down the concerns as they arrive, dated, rather than acting on them. Then read them at three months. Some will have dissolved entirely; the ones still standing, in the same words, are real.
The exception is anything about conduct rather than fit, bullying, dishonesty, or being asked to do something you think is wrong. Those do not need a settling-in period and should not be given one.
How can an app help you remember everything in a new job?
The first months involve more names, context and follow-ups than anyone can hold. Mention a one-on-one or a project deadline with its date in an entry, and the AI journaling app Reflectize puts it on its calendar, where you can move it or take it off if the date changes. If you write a few lines after work, Reflectize remembers who people are, can save something you promised as a goal or an event once you confirm, and its summaries make the Friday review quick. That is especially useful in weeks when everything blurs together.
This piece is part of life transitions. Transitions are hard to think clearly inside of. Writing during one gives you a record you will be glad to have on the other side.