Can you improve your notetaking skills? You may think it doesn’t matter, but how well you take notes can make all the difference in how well you get things done in school, personal and business life.
Why is this true? More organized notetaking skills will improve not only your ability to find important notes, thoughts, appointments, and requests, but it will allow you to capture more information that’s useful to you.
This makes you a smarter, more reliable individual who’s on time and rarely has information fall through the cracks.
Here are some tips for improving how you take notes:
- One capture device: a majority of problems stem from the fact that information gets written everywhere? various notebooks, legal pads, sticky notes, backs of envelopes, business cards. Choose one primary tool and stick to it. If the occasional note does get written elsewhere you can transfer the information into your primary capture tool, or just staple the note inside.
- Keep it with you: take it everywhere you go, so that every meeting note, random thought, and passing conversation gets captured. I use a Day-Timer desk-sized planner for my system, which I enjoy because it offers decent writing surface yet remains quite portable. It’s easy to write in while standing, and 8 ½ x 11 inch documents can be folded in half and inserted. Find what’s comfortable for you, and commit to it.
- Use a fresh page: on every topic, whenever possible. This enables you to easily organize your notes by context. Sometimes you’ll have full pages and sometimes with just a few thoughts, but the important idea is that you can quickly visually identify the note with its topic. A meeting that covers many topics can be written on one sheet because action items will be separated out later. For this element, I prefer Day-Timer’s Desk Notation Pads.
Want More Tips?
If you like these tips, we have more quick hints for improving your notetaking skills at Daytimer.com. Improve your Note Taking System and Increase Productivity
photo credit: Tokyo Social Events via photopin cc
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