HBS professor Teresa Amabile, who has done some great writing on creativity at work, and co-author Steven Kramer have posted "Four Reasons to Keep a Work Diary" on HBR.org.
The theme is similar to that of "To learn, keep and review a mistake log," but Amabile & Kramer's post is even better.
First of all, it establishes journaling as a daily ritual, as opposed to something you do when it seems appropriate to. As such, there's a better chance that you'll do it regularly, and maintain it. In a busy work life, there's just not much opportunity to catch yourself and say, "this is important, let's note this down." A journaling habit based on answering a simple question, "What was the most interesting thing that happened today?" will catch all the really important stuff (and some less important stuff, but that's OK too).
Also, given that one's work diary isn't limited to mistakes, it avoids the risks of being too depressing or of creating the feeling that the only noteworthy things in a work life are errors. Such a negative focus would be a reason to stop keeping the journal, as well as being a distortion. In fact, Amabile & Kramer assert that one very positive outcome of journaling is a heightened appreciation for the progress (small or large) that we make every day in our jobs.
Nonetheless, I wouldn't banish mistakes from the diary. If that's the most interesting thing that happened that day, by all means journal it, and tag it as a mistake.
Then, you could periodically search for all the entries tagged "mistake" and do the same assessment I recommended for the mistake logs.
I have started doing just that.
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