Start by taking better notes. The first step in any productivity system is to capture what’s on your mind. I have several great tools that I use to help me capture notes, thoughts and ideas. However, what you write down can make all the difference in getting things done.

Having the right tools handy to capture your notes is important but what you are capturing is just as important.

Before a meeting starts I look around the room and see who’s ready to take notes. I then look at what they are using to capture the notes with.

Are they a yellow pad Bic pen sort of person or a well worn Moleskine with a nice pen type of note taker.

You see, I’m sizing these people up. I want to know who can I depend on. It’s definitely not that person that has nothing out and is playing around on their phone.

I even applaud the person that asks for a piece of paper to make notes on. A step in the right direction.

So you are one of the people that show up with a pad and pen. I hope so!

You take a bunch of notes, but what’s in your notes?

I’ve taken enough notes in my life to know when something should be noted.

Be careful about just transcribing what is being said. That’s a huge mental challenge and mostly a waste of time. When you are that focused on the notes you are taking and what is being said it’s hard for you to actually be a part of the conversation.

Here’s some tips on better note taking:

• Be a better listener – You need to listen for  terms like “follow up on” and “get in touch with” these are all potential to do’s for you. Also listen and interact on what is being said because sometimes you might be the only one to see the light at the tunnel.

• Be concise with your notes – Write enough so you know what to do, but not so much as to miss what is being said.  as I mentioned before you don’t want to miss the most important piece of information because you are too busy trying to capture everything being said. Also you want to participate in meetings. Something I like to keep in mind, is if you don’t have anything to add to a meeting you may not be invited back.
• Have a system so you can easily mark tasks to do in your notes. I use an  action pad from Behance for meeting notes. It has a section to write tasks down on. If you just use a plain piece of paper make a system. I used to place a star next to any item that was a task to do. If there was something I thought I might want to do in the future I put a question mark in front of it. Keep it simple.

• Present a summary of the meeting before the meeting ends. I find this step is often not done and can save so much time. Scan your notes and say I’m planning on doing A, B and C. I usually ask if that makes sense to everyone. Possibly you were way off base and this is a great time to make that adjustment.

The first step in being more productive is better note taking. I love note taking and honing it as a skill. Yes it really is a skill to take the notes. Keep at it and you will get better.

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