Today’s post is different. I’ll talk about notes, hand written notes to be precise.

A conversation I had a few days ago with a close friend convinced me that, unlike other people, I am unable to take notes on a computer and then refer to them as actionable items.

Following up on meeting notes saved as text files, Word/Pages documents, Evernote, OneNote and others more esoteric formats is extremely difficult for me. Even worse, I’ve noticed that I have problems transforming those notes in to-do’s.

The method I use is somehow convoluted but it works, at least for me.

Taking notes by hand

For a geek like me, I’m almost ashamed to admit that during meetings and conference calls I always go back to pen and paper.

I do it because:

• I’m able to synthesize the concept more effectively
• I can better remember those notes
• In case of face-to-face meetings, the person in front of me seems more willing to talk.

The third point is quite common. It seems to me that the person across from you during a meeting is more open when you write on paper. In contrast, if you take notes on a laptop you inevitably give the impression of not actively listening to the other person. Writing on a laptop is like putting up a barrier between the two people.

Scanning your hand written notes

You might ask if I ever scan my handwritten notes. The answer is no.

Just as an experiment, try to scan any of your notes. Then look at the PDF files you’ve created. They don’t have the clarity of the original notes, do they?

I am not sure why that happens, but most people I have talked to have had similar disappointing results. It’s likely that by scanning a document you lose part of the information embedded in the hand writing, such as the imperceptible marks left by the pen when you press on the paper.

That information is probably perceived by your eyes. Your brain then links it to the emotional state you were when you wrote that particular sentence. Think of how you hold your pen when you write something important. You probably hold it tighter and press more on the paper. The deeper mark left cannot be transferred to a PDF file.

In my experience, whenever I read any of my old original notes I can clearly feel the emotions I was under while writing a certain sentence. That is why I like to keep them in their original form.

Because of this, throughout the years I’ve been employing a different method to follow up on my notes.

My solution

Whenever I need to take meaningful notes, I follow this process:

1. Put the laptop to sleep
2. Concentrate on what the other person is saying and practice active listening
3. Write down the notes on a white piece of paper using the Bullet Journal method
4. After the meeting, review the notes and decide what items should be actionable
5. Summarize the meeting, and save it as a Text/Word/Pages document for future reference
6. Add the actionable items as to-do’s in OmniFocus. From this moment on, just use OmniFocus and don’t look at the original notes.

This solution is not perfect, and I tweak it from time to time, but it has the advantage of:

• Giving me a backup of my notes in two separate formats (paper and digital), should one of the two get destroyed/deleted
• Allowing me to review/summarize/think about the notes taken during, and most important, after the meeting
• Triggering only essential to-do’s in OmniFocus

I’m a sucker for methods to improve my note taking skills, so I’d like to hear from you. How do you take notes? What advantages and disadvantages have you found in your method?