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Note Taking Strategies - The Digital Project Manager
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Note prioritization
Most common reasons to search through old notes:
- Figuring out who is supposed to do what
- Revisiting/clarifying decisions made
- Looking for greater context on requirements
- Resolving disagreements/disputes.
So the key here is to use note taking strategies that suit your needs.
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Must-Capture notes in meetings
- Action Items: to-dos, tasks, action requests etc. These will serve as the foundation to keep everyone aligned and moving forward.
- Decisions: Clearly defining the outcome and decision agreed to by the group is essential.
- Requirements/Specifications: Sometimes they pop up unexpectedly in the midst of conversation, but they’re important to document.
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Honing your note taking strategies during meetings
- Create an agenda, to be able to better control the pace of the meeting and plan for the likely key notetaking moments.
- Take notes in advance: Write your key discussion points to present in advance.
- Prepare your note-taking tools.
- Prepare the setting before the meeting, especially before video calls: being able to hear everyone = better notes.
- Block 10 minutes after the meeting, to clean up your notes, add details where there may be gaps, and delete notes that turn out to have no value.
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SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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The Outline/List
Is a linear method of taking notes that proceeds down the page, using indentation or bullets to denote major and minor points.
Pros: it records content relationship in a way tha...
The Sentence Method
The goal is to jot down your thoughts as quickly as possible. Format is kept to a minimum: every new thought is written on a new line.
Pros: Is like free writing for notes.
Cons: lack organization and notes can be hard to understand.
Works for: meetings or lectures that lack organization; when information is presented very quickly.
SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review)
- Skim the material for bolded text, images, summaries, to produce a list of headlines;
- Each headline is then written in the form of a question;
- Record your “answers” to the reading questions under each corresponding header;
- Once you’ve finished reading the text, write a summary of the material from memory—this is the “recite” part of the process.
- Finally, review your notes to make sure you’ve completely grasped the concepts.
Works for: dense written material.
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Benefits of note-taking
- Taking notes keeps you focused.
- It triggers critical, constructive thinking.
- It enables you to stay engaged.
- It captures in-the-moment insights, qu...
Effective notes taking
- Choose the right tool: digital or paper, whatever works for you;
- Give your notes structure: this focuses your thinking and simplifies review and retrieval;
- Record whatever’s important or interesting: questions, key insights, quotes, diagrams, etc.;
- Use symbols so you can quickly scan your notes later: e.g.: "*" for important/insightful or "?" for things that require further research;
- Schedule time to review your notes.
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Purpose of taking notes
Note-taking serves one simple purpose: to help you remember information.
Although we might associate note-taking with school, it's something most of us continue doing for the bul...
Keep your notes simple
Keep them short, but have enough triggers in the keywords to jumpstart your memory when you look at them again:
- Stick to keywords and very short sentences.
- Write out your notes in your own words.
- Find a note-taking style to fit both your needs and the speakers.
- Write down what matters.
Outdated techniques
Rereading your notes, highlighting them, underlining them, and even summarizing them - all take a lot of your time.
Better methods include taking breaks and spreading out your studying (known as distributed practice), and taking practice tests (which isn't really applicable outside of school).