Take Note

Full disclosure - I've never been good at taking notes. High school, college, volunteer organizations, work; even at home I am not great with it. Some of this is related to having bad hand writing as a kid, but now that I'm an adult (my handwriting has gotten marginally better) I suspect that my writing isn't the cause of all my note taking trouble.

I'm in a new role at work, which requires me to attend more meetings and track/follow up on a lot more work streams than I have before. That has stretched my note taking abilities to their limits and while I am surviving with my current process, I am not thriving in it.

In all the tools and processes that we utilize every day at work, I never imagined that the lowly note was going to be the splinter in my paw. I wrote code for a living for years, have taught myself numerous programming languages and have conquered public speaking (mostly), but note taking is the albatross around my neck!

Today I investigated some additional formats and structures to notes. I found the Cornell method and a box method that seems to fit how I work. Because I am analytical and strategic in my work normally, I am committing to trying a couple of these for a month or so to see if it makes a difference.

I am always open to suggestions and ideas, if anyone has something that works particularly well I would love to hear about it. Stay tuned for updates as I try some other methods.