Thanks, this is amazing! I know you said you don't use any specific memory techniques beyond just paying attention. But I'm familiar with some memory techniques as described in "The Memory Book" by Harry Lorayne and "Moonwalking with Einstein" by Josh Foer, and I suspect that you're either using techniques without realizing it -- or forgetting quite a bit.
If you consider this and recall any techniques you may have been doing without consciously realizing it, I'd love to read a follow-up post. If not, read about chaining. It's a ridiculously simple technique that people can do immediately -- no practice required. For more advanced stuff, check out memory palaces.
1) Is it really true that "if it’s not worth my full attention, then I shouldn’t spend time on it"? I don't think I believe that everything worth doing is worth doing well. Some meetings I need to be at, but don't need to participate in except if asked a question.
2) I am wondering about motivation. (There was a commenter who raised this question in a really negative way, but I heard a kernel of truth in there.) Most of the motivations you described for taking these kinds of notes seemed pretty sensible, and I'm also curious what the emotional motivations for you are! Do you feel more connected with people when you send them these notes? Do you feel fear about forgetting things in your life? That sort of thing.
3) Virtually all the meetings I am in these days are over Zoom, not in person. And of course, every Zoom meeting looks like every other Zoom meeting. So there's no sushi, none of the in-person bits that help make something memorable. What do you do about that?
4) I'm a really fast typist and I like to type notes during meetings. Of course that sucks my attention away from all the non-verbal stuff in the meeting, and it also has the danger of making me type everything instead of creating notes that have a high density of information.
Finally let me just say that your post was one of the very few things I read on the internet that I actually thought about a lot afterwards and then searched for and came back to and re-read. Kudos for that!
What about some hard words or terms that we use in meeting? We sometimes forget the hard terms used in the meeting such as the name of some out of the box sci project, or some mission, etc.
Where can I "subscribe" to your notes? :) thanks for sharing your work flow! A complementary technique I saw a friend use was just jolting down key words and snippets during an event. Sort of a poem in the end but might be combined with what you describe. I see a great usefulness in abstracting and using graphical forms to connect ideas.
This is the type of technique I used to use in my medical practice. I would make it a strict point of not making notes during a patient encounter but rather try to engage totally with the patient, figuring that if I couldn't remember something short term it probably wasn't worth remembering and also that the patient would appreciate my looking at her (or him) rather than a piece of paper or computer screen. I would record the salient information after they left the office. As far as long term memory I can still recall details, faces, conversations, and conditions from many, many years ago. I was in practice for over 40 years and have been retired for 7.
Unreal! You soend all that time "at home" after work, recording a meeting from earlier! You need to get a life. Sending out an unsolicited record to the participants doesn't make you look great, it makes you look like a creep. If you *must* do this, then just actually record the audio/video at the time and transcribe the salient points, it will at least be accurate.
Thanks, this is amazing! I know you said you don't use any specific memory techniques beyond just paying attention. But I'm familiar with some memory techniques as described in "The Memory Book" by Harry Lorayne and "Moonwalking with Einstein" by Josh Foer, and I suspect that you're either using techniques without realizing it -- or forgetting quite a bit.
If you consider this and recall any techniques you may have been doing without consciously realizing it, I'd love to read a follow-up post. If not, read about chaining. It's a ridiculously simple technique that people can do immediately -- no practice required. For more advanced stuff, check out memory palaces.
A few questions:
1) Is it really true that "if it’s not worth my full attention, then I shouldn’t spend time on it"? I don't think I believe that everything worth doing is worth doing well. Some meetings I need to be at, but don't need to participate in except if asked a question.
2) I am wondering about motivation. (There was a commenter who raised this question in a really negative way, but I heard a kernel of truth in there.) Most of the motivations you described for taking these kinds of notes seemed pretty sensible, and I'm also curious what the emotional motivations for you are! Do you feel more connected with people when you send them these notes? Do you feel fear about forgetting things in your life? That sort of thing.
3) Virtually all the meetings I am in these days are over Zoom, not in person. And of course, every Zoom meeting looks like every other Zoom meeting. So there's no sushi, none of the in-person bits that help make something memorable. What do you do about that?
4) I'm a really fast typist and I like to type notes during meetings. Of course that sucks my attention away from all the non-verbal stuff in the meeting, and it also has the danger of making me type everything instead of creating notes that have a high density of information.
Finally let me just say that your post was one of the very few things I read on the internet that I actually thought about a lot afterwards and then searched for and came back to and re-read. Kudos for that!
What about some hard words or terms that we use in meeting? We sometimes forget the hard terms used in the meeting such as the name of some out of the box sci project, or some mission, etc.
Where can I "subscribe" to your notes? :) thanks for sharing your work flow! A complementary technique I saw a friend use was just jolting down key words and snippets during an event. Sort of a poem in the end but might be combined with what you describe. I see a great usefulness in abstracting and using graphical forms to connect ideas.
This is the type of technique I used to use in my medical practice. I would make it a strict point of not making notes during a patient encounter but rather try to engage totally with the patient, figuring that if I couldn't remember something short term it probably wasn't worth remembering and also that the patient would appreciate my looking at her (or him) rather than a piece of paper or computer screen. I would record the salient information after they left the office. As far as long term memory I can still recall details, faces, conversations, and conditions from many, many years ago. I was in practice for over 40 years and have been retired for 7.
I have one word, Thank you
Is there usually someone writing down the specific next actions? Or is the meeting primarily an idea generating thing?
I find that I forget the details of action items unless I write them down at that moment in the meeting.
Very good points! They remind me about what I am used to do after long readings too. Thank you!
Unreal! You soend all that time "at home" after work, recording a meeting from earlier! You need to get a life. Sending out an unsolicited record to the participants doesn't make you look great, it makes you look like a creep. If you *must* do this, then just actually record the audio/video at the time and transcribe the salient points, it will at least be accurate.