TL;DR; Write down everything from the meeting :) Day after meeting we remember 20% from it
That’s a statement from some research. If you don’t practice, don’t train your muscles or brain to perform particular actions, they will forget how to remember. Recently I was involved in several different projects. They were not related to each other. I had huge problems with remembering everything I should remember…
Paper notes to the rescue!
At some point, I decided to take notes of key things I thought I would need later. I used A4/A5 paper sheets and pen/pencil. While discussing I’ve spent little time writing down short sentences, keywords, web addresses etc. If you don’t know what to write down - write everything you can.
Every note has a header with title and date. Some of the notes have also page numbers. Usually, I don’t try to compress as much text as possible on a single piece of paper. I’d rather have some extra free space just in case later I would have to add more to that particular context.
Depending on the meeting some notes have one page and some ten :)
Writing without looking
One thing that would help me a lot is the ability to write down the thoughts. For the moment I have to take a quick break to write down something. Sometimes I need extra time to jump back to the meeting :) It is quite inconvenient and annoying. I guess I’ll master writing without looking with more and more practice.
Sections in paper notes
I have mentioned that already above, but I’ll elaborate on it a bit more.
What I mean by section is usually a rectangular area with some text and some free space. The section is something like context.
Taking notes has to be fast. Fast means a higher probability of introducing errors. That’s why I like to leave some empty space in section. To rewrite something or to add. Additionally sometimes during the conversation we are coming back to the topic we’ve already discussed. Then I just jump back to a particular section. If the section is becoming bigger I like to add a header to it.
After meeting
So the meeting is done. Things are discussed, maybe agreed :) It’s time to take actions with paper notes!
I usually take every section one by one. Handle it (read below), cross it out and when all sections are handled throw away the paper note.
When it comes to notes/sections handling, it deserves a separate blog post. In short, I do one of the following:
- Do the action in note (like visit a webpage or send email)
- Move note to Evernote/Trello
- Move note to weekly TODO list
One more thing worth mentioning here is tagging. When I have to handle a multi-page note I tag similar sections with colour markers. This helps me to do batch work after. I focus on one tag :)
Good pen
Advice: always have a handy pen. One that you like to write with. That fits your fingers. Of course, take a second one as a backup.
Summary
In short summary, I think that taking notes and handling them improved my daily work. I don’t have to remember tons of information and worry if I forgot something. I think it’s a habit right now :)