5 tips for taking good notes

How many times have you retrieved notes from an old meeting only to discover a set of scribbles and doodles which are completely useless? You can’t make head nor tail or your own writing and there doesn’t seem to be anything resembling a flow.

It’s frustrating, right?

This is a pretty common thing. Whether you take your notes digitally or in an analogue form, it’s easy to inadvertently create something that won’t serve any kind of useful purpose in the future.

The good news is that there are some great, tried-and-tested strategies for taking notes that serve their purpose. Below, I’ve picked out five tips that have enabled me to write brilliant notes.

Give them a try!

1. Get the right materials together

As noted above - you can take notes both digitally or with a traditional pen and paper setup. However, the key to taking _great_ notes lies in the preparation.

Before the meeting, make sure you have your note-taking tools of choice right by your side. If this includes sticky notes, labels or any other paraphernalia, grab them.

The same goes for things like reading glasses and power supplies for your laptop (if that’s how you take your notes). The more prepared you are, the better your notes will be.

2. Review your previous notes (if they exist)

If this is a follow up meeting or one in a long series of meetings, make sure you take some time to review your previous notes.

This will give you a head start and help you make some pre-notes on anything that was left over or unanswered from the last session.

If you don’t have any previous notes, you can come prepared in other ways. For instance, by reading up a little on the subject or by taking key parts of the email chain that led to the meeting and noting them down.

3. Listen

The best notes are written by the best listeners.

In fact, the 80/20 rule definitely applies here, with the weight of your time being reserved for listening.

The closer you listen to what’s going on, the more easily you’ll spot where and when you need to make notes about the most important stuff.

4. If you’re digital, try handwritten notes

Like me, you may have fallen into the trap of taking notes solely digitally.

This can actually slow you down, no matter how quick you are at typing. There’s research to suggest that humans retain information better when handwriting notes and, regardless, laptops can power themselves off and crash without warning.

Your pen and paper won’t do that. Try a hybrid approach if that feels better; there are no rules, remember.

5. Ask questions

Often, if you look back and can’t understand your notes it’s because you weren’t clear about what you were taking notes about at the time. And that’s because you didn’t ask enough questions.

During the meeting, ask questions whenever you’re about to take a note and you realise you’re not sure about an element of it.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions (there are no stupid questions, remember) - it’ll result in far better notes when you retrieve them later on. Trust me - I speak from experience.

Wrapping up

I should probably confirm that my handwriting is pretty poor. In fact, it’s so bad when written cursive (joined-up) that I’ve recently switched to print (the handwritten form).

Therefore, if the tips above work for me when it comes to note taking, trust me - they will definitely work for you.

The best news? Once you start taking notes that work, you’ll enjoy the process. For me, note taking has become fun, addictive and ultimately rewarding in terms of productivity.