Here's how I take notes in meetings, school, and more

When I was in engineering school, I would look around my class and see students frenetically taking notes about what the instructor was saying.

Realizing that the instructor was repeating the textbook and that you can't pay attention and take such detailed notes, I opened my textbook and simply highlighted the important parts.

This led me to my note taking strategy that has worked well for me for 30 years as an entrepreneur and inventor where I've had thousands of meetings.

The key is to document two things:

✅ Important information

✅ Action items.

That's really all you need. Use bullets. Avoid the filler. My average meeting might have 10 to 20 bullets.

When I used to use a paper notebook, I had a few icons to identify action items. Box for a to do ⏹️ (I check it off when done) emails (E), calls (C), internet research (I) — I use strikethrough to mark those done.

I also draw a line down the middle of a page when everything is done on that page (or moved to another system) so I know it's been handled and that I don't have to look at it again.

I tried for years to move to notetaking with an app to save me from duplicating my notes from paper to another system and eventually I settled on Workflowy — I like its simplicity, neatness, and instant access on all my devices. I've used OneNote, Evernote, and others but I find they have too much. Simplicity and speed are more important to me.

Hardware systems I've tried include a Casio task thingie (early 1990s), Palm Pilot & Handspring Visor (late 1990s), HP iPAQ (2000s), Microsoft Surface 1 (2013-ish), Samsung Tab A with S pen (2016-ish), Remarkable Tablet (2020). Looked into but never bought into those pen/paper transmitting thingies.

The attached video provides a brief demonstration.

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