Tracking your own emotional reactions is just as important as anything else you could track on your project.

Why tracking your emotional reactions matters

1. If you lose control of your emotions, then people will start to wonder whether you've lost control of other aspects of the project as well. Managing yourself is the foundation of managing a project.

2. If you damage trust between you and others, your project will be harder to accomplish. Conversely, monitoring how you interact with others signals that you care about your relationships and make help increase trust.

3. Tracking your reactions is the foundation of developing greater self-control, which will help you better navigate the tense moments that appear in every project.

4. Tracking your emotional reactions helps you develop reflective skills, which helps build the mental flexibility to take increasingly wider and more strategic views of your project.

How to track your emotional reactions

1. Take five minutes at the end of the day to sit undisturbed.

2. Bring to mind particular moments working on your project that stood out to you.

3. Name the emotions that accompanied those moments. Use an emotion wheel to help you name your specific emotions. (https://humansystems.co/emotionwheels/ is a helpful set of emotion wheels.)

4. Consider what may have prompted those emotions in you.

5. Write down any quick insights you have about yourself as a result of this reflection.

The more you practice this, the more skill you will have at managing yourself, which in turn will help you better manage the project.