A close someone just replied to my
productivity book learning asking for a few tips on how to act on the David Allen suggestions with an additional question – How do I better manage taking notes during meetings?
Principle 1: Never leave ideas in your head.
Situation: Situations where we get ideas are in the shower, in the car, while walking around and doing meaningless tasks / tasks that don’t require thoughts.
Solution: Use something that you carry around all the time. Some people carry notebooks.. i prefer just writing them on my phone. Every phone these days has a ‘Notes’ feature – you can keep putting these ideas in and email them to yourself so you know you will never forget. This generally eliminates a LOT of stress. These ideas could be anything – a simpler way to solve bank payment for example – just putting it down helps greatly.
What’s also important is you keep an idea collection ‘bin’ somewhere. When you email all these ideas, try and put them all in one place (instead of processing them all at once) so you can collect them and your brain knows it is there safe. When you have time to plan, you can plan accordingly.
I use Microsoft OneNote as my bin and would recommend it above all else (yes, even Evernote)
Principle 2: Always decide 1 action step
Solution: Simple – just pen down the ideas with the action step. Eg: Clean room versus room has to be cleaned
Principle 3: Group admin tasks
Solution: Once you have a working bin (I use a file on the computer – a close friend uses a notebook), you can plan stuff on a Sunday morning. Then, you can start combining all admin tasks for a single day – instead of doing them one at a time.
Problem: How can I take comprehensive meeting notes?
Best Practice: I learnt this from my senior consultant on project over the past 2 months. Every time we had a meeting, he had his email window open where he took down all meeting notes. As soon as the meeting was over, he emailed it to everybody to check if he had the correct points. This accomplished 2 things – proved he was listening and also reminded everyone of actions they promised. Besides, if there was a misunderstanding, it was corrected early.
If the meeting was face to face, he diligently took notes and first thing as soon as he got out, sent everyone a follow up email with action steps.
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These are simple ideas which make huge differences over the long run. All the best. And do suggest ideas that make you more productive!
A Learning a Day 