The Art of Taking Notes

Hey folks, I'm Swati.

Welcome back to my weekly newsletter.

This newsletter is those conversations: what I'm seeing, thinking, and what I'd tell you if we were grabbing coffee.

This week's edition is about notetaking.

But before that:

A junior walked into a meeting with me a few weeks ago.

He had his laptop open and kept nodding when I looked at him.

I assumed he was engaged and notetaking. 

I gave him three things to follow up on. 

A week later, he came back and had only done one of them.

When I asked about the other two, he “forgot.”

And I’m sure you can relate. 

New joiners, interns, people six months into their first job. They walk into rooms with senior people and think the goal is to look like they're keeping up.

They don’t carry a notebook, and most of the time their laptops have a random tab open or a black document they stare at. 

But, the goal is to not lose what was said.

This is the person who's nodding in the meeting.

They remember the general direction of the conversation. 

But the specific task, exact deadline, and the name of the person they were supposed to follow up with are all gone.

And the worst part is they don't know it's gone.

So they go back and do something adjacent to what was asked. 

Or they come back to ask again, which signals exactly the opposite of what they intended.

Early in your career, access to senior people is not guaranteed.

When someone gives you 30 minutes or includes you in a room, they notice how you use it.

A junior who comes back having done exactly what was asked, on time, who remembers a detail from the last conversation; that person stands out.

Most of the information shared in meetings just disappears. If you capture it and act on it, you are already doing better than roughly half the room.

So here's what I'd actually do.

I’m not suggesting a pen is superior to the keyboard. 

It's about two simpler things.

A notebook is a signal, it tells the person you're meeting that you plan to remember this.

That changes how they speak to you.

And a laptop in a meeting is a distraction machine. 

Even with good intentions if you get one notification, or open another tab, your attention is gone.

A notebook doesn't do that.

If you must use a laptop, close every tab and treat it like a notebook. But a physical notebook is harder to cheat with.

Decisions made in the meeting. 

Action items with the owner's name and a deadline. 

And any data or analysis needed to get to the pending decisions before the next meeting.

This is the most underused habit I've seen.

After a meeting with a senior person, send a short email.

Two or three lines: What you understood, what you'll do, and by when.

It does three things: it confirms you understood correctly, creates a paper trail, and shows the person they didn't waste their time on you.

The reviewing matters as much as the writing.

Most people take notes and never look at them. 

The research is clear that this only gives you roughly a fifth of the benefit.

Your next meeting will begin exactly where the previous one was left with nothing falling through the cracks. 

The joy on your senior’s face will be clearly visible when they see the progress through your pre-read even before you have walked in. 

That person will notice how you took every action item, every analysis seriously and followed through within timelines. 

It sounds obvious, but almost nobody takes the pain of writing post-reads and pre-reads. 

Early in your career, you are not expected to have the answers in the room. 

Instead just be reliable for the folks you work with. 

It makes you more dependable and ensures you are given opportunities to work more closely with senior leaders.