What to log in my journal?

[Hawkeye27]

I've broken down and decided to start a poker journal. I consider this a step towards taking my game more seriously. Was wondering what others find the most useful besides win rate, hours played, etc. I started it last night and have about five notes like this:

8:15 2/4
played 15 min. +$14. Game got too tight.

As an online player I do alot of bouncing around when the bad players get up and leave my table. I did end up at the same table for about two hours and was able to take several notes on players and record a hand I had a question on (posted below). Am interested in other journal keepers ideas. Responses appreciated.

[Jeffro]

When I first started playing I downloaded a spreadsheet that I could record date, time played, limit, win/loss, and comments. It calcullated standard deviation and win/loss in BB per hour, it also created a pretty line graph of win/loss in dollars. While it was great for telling me what my SD was and BB/per hour I didn't find it did much to improve my game. I finally decided to shell out some hard cash for Pokerstat and this is where I think I was able to actually see why and what happened during these sessions, and let the software do some of the work for me. I think the invesment is well worth it, if you are playing a lot I would think these notes would become very cumbersome. One of the greatest things I found was I was very quick to judge a player as bad, but after looking at couple 100 hands this person played, I was able to tell they weren't as bad a player as first suspected.

[mmanne]

Along with using Poker Tracker (which is great, but doesn't support all the sites I play on), I keep an Excel spreadsheet. It's pretty basic; I'd love to keep more accurate stats, but I'm just too lazy. The spreadsheet has date, place (online site or B&M site), hours played, limits, amount won or lost and a notes area. At the bottom, I have totals and averages (but haven't taken the time to do it by site). In addition, I have another spreadsheet, which is a player notes page, just a name, site and notes on him/her.
Anybody got any other suggestions?

[Bob T.]

For online play, I keep a notepad on my desk.

When I start playing on a table, I write down the site, the limit, and my start time. When I stop playing on the table, I complete the entry with the stop time, and the win/loss. At the end of the day, or when I have time, I transfer the information to my log, and to statking.

Having the notepad there is also useful, if you want to write notes, write down a hand, or make a grocery list.