How do you take notes?

[pageclot[$]]

Maybe this thread should be called "How do you function?"

I have a mini-binder I take everywhere with me. Cheap, plastic, and 3-ring, it's the same size as a leather binder I picked up at a garage sale (it was that pebbly type leather, and made in 1905, in Decatur, Illinois, by the Linxweiler Printing Company, whose owner was named Eugene, and who owned the magazine Hounds and Hunting, having taken it over from his boyhood friend Fred O'Flying to pay for a book on beagles that was advance-sold, but never written (for the whole story, look here: Hounds and Hunting.)

I use this binder, filled with loose-leaf pages, to take notes. I also use Post-It's "Tape Flags Thin Pack Dispenser" to attach to individual pages with personalized tabs. I'll start up a new page for a meeting, write notes on it, and then later, attach a colour-coded tab on it that sticks out, so I can easily find these notes later on. Right now, I've got tabs for:

- Diagrams (house, desk, data flow diagrams)
- Top Priorities (The latest list, replaced often)
- Finance stuff (The results for the latest period, details on reserves, etc)
- Annual Plan Binder notes (Notes on what to include for the various reporting levels)
- Retail Systems (Notes on all our meetings on changing our retail accounting system)
- Branding meeting (Notes on our meeting to converge on one standard corporate brand)
- DEML (acronym of a company that supplies us energy services)

etc etc.

I have used many systems in the past, including ringed binders, notepads, scattered pieces of paper (the Entropy approach), a Daytimer (too thick, not enough space for notes), and this one is working, for now. The problem is what to do with all the paper that people hand me at meetings. I usually ask for follow up emails of the same reports, but don't always get them. Eventually, they end up being cast off and filed in my desk or in the garbage. It would be neat if there was a system that could incorporate all the crap I get at meetings into my neat little binder.

I know the obvious solution seems to be to use a palm-type device, but right now, they're too small (I lusted after the Apple Newton for a while, and still think it's just the right size), and not good enough yet.

When one of those can replace my laptop and my binder, I'll have arrived. I may order one of the higher end palm-type devices, just for "research" soon.

In my office at work, I have a 1920s manual on "Office Practice", printed by one of our Ryerson Polytechnic College, which has very specific guidelines on basic things, like how to answer the phone, what types of desks and workspaces are available, and how to choose them, and the sort of office demeanor that is expected in the business world. I'll post a thread soon with some gems from there, but in the meantime.....

How do you function? How do you take notes? How do you keep it all together?

P

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

My schedule, to do list, and all my contacts (email, addresses, phone numbers for everyone in both business and personal life) WERE in Schedule+ but we've converted to Outlook (icky poo poo).

Notes and handouts from meetings I keep on paper. I add any to-do's to my to-do list and file what I need to keep.

[magenta321]

Um, I grab a piece of scrap paper, write down the information, then do whatever I need to do with that info (call someone back, find their results, etc).

When I learn new things, like new computer programs or things like that I can't take notes. It interupts my learning process. I need to hear what to do, and then feel how to do it, and then, viola, it's in my memory. Writing it down somehow interupts this process.

I'm not really a note taking sort of person, but all the ones I do take go onto a piece of scrap paper, and stay in the pocket of my labcoat until I resolve whatever it is. Then I throw the note out. Good riddance.

Margaret, who is at work right now.

[Joubert[$]]

This is a good question, PC. Actually, it's a great one. I switch methods every year or so, continually striving to optimize. Part of the issue if, of course, the technology in vogue in your office at the time.

But at work, I start every day with a 8 1/2 x 11 yellow pad and my Pocket PC. I draw a line down the center of the page. New tasks (designated by a delta symbol) are entered on the left, stray notes, phone numbers, etc. are on the right. If I go to a meeting that requires notes, I use pages behind the front to take the notes.

I transfer the notes and the tasks to my Pocket PC every night. That's when I plan out the next day.

Now, my company is email crazy, and if we get into filing systems, I can tell you about an awfully goofy one I use...

[phoenixx]

Wow. Y'all are, erm, detailed. I have ACT! on my computer, which prints out nice pages for my Day Runner that have my calls, appointments, follow up info, email, etc on them. It also keeps my addresses, handles my email, does word processing, etc. Yes they have a version that is compatible with some PDAs, but I don't use that one. Any paper gets filed chronologically and alphabetically if it gets kept - most of my stuff is paperless. I operate on the KISS method of organization - hasn't failed me yet.

Leslie, the queen of organized.... lol

[murasaki]

When I'm in an office or regular job, I use Outlook and my Sprint PCS phone to keep track of things to do, appointments, contacts, etc. Most of the time, I print out the day's schedule with the to-do list down one side and keep it on the left hand side of my desk. I also print out monthly calendars at the beginning of each month (or after major changes) so that I have portable calendar whenever I need it (or if the computer network goes down, taking Outlook with it).

I took notes either on a steno-type pad or a legal pad.

Since I'm now in school, I take notes (when working at home or in the library) directly on my laptop. In class, I use spiral notebooks. All to-do items go into my phone--and I never print them out.

I'd like to stay all-digital when I go back to a regular job, but sometimes it's difficult letting go of paper.

--naomi

[vonboob]

I have also a two ring binder for everything... It has sort of three sections: pages printed from Outlook address book is the first one (I print a new set every half a year or so), calculations and tables make the central bulk, and final part are photocopies of catalogue pages from all kinds of manufacturing I have contact with.
I'd be completely lost without it but for daily operations I also need two cork-boards and two desks full of "post-it" notes all over... There is also a dry marker board but I rarely use it.