I have explored various methods for note taking over the years. The traditional method (write as much as you can) just tends to distract you from being the best you can be in the meeting and gives you very little benefit later. You’re probably better off just recording the meeting on your iPod.
Then I heard about the Cornell System (pictured right). The Cornell system breaks the page down into three areas:
- This area is reserved for summaries and symbols to help you quickly find the part of your notes you’re looking for
- In this section of the page you write lots of detailed notes
- Down here you summarise what is on the page
Wow, this struck me as a great way to take notes. Except I don’t think there’s any benefit in long form notes. And the summary of the page is really the name of the meeting.
It seems that the Cornell System might be really good for taking detailed lecture notes, then forcing you to find the key points in your notes and then summarise the whole page. I think it would be great at University when you actually do need to keep all those detailed notes, but you also need a quick way to find the correct page.
At work, it’s a little different. Here’s notes from a fictitious meeting, Cornell style (skip it, it’s boring!):
| Look for annual patterns in sales | Sally says that if she had access to old sales figures she might be able to project what they’re likely to be in the next quarter. Norm says that due to the GFC, there’s no way she can make that claim. Sally pointed out that by comparing the quarters year to year we’d know how much we’re down by, on average, this year. Norm agreed. |
| (The Boss came in and we spent about 10 minutes recounting our weekend. Sally went to the beach, Norm watched the Cricket) | |
| Norm has the data | Sally asked Norm again for the data, Norm has agreed to find it and get it to her. **The projector bulb is flickering. Do we need a new one?** |
| Sally will make a report | Sally says that as Norm as the data, he could put together the report. Norm pushed back and accused Sally of never wanting to do anything herself. I told them to both settle down and for Sally to do this report, but to help Norm with the next one. ** I need to get Sally the new report layout ** |
| Sally and Norm discuss the relevance of old sales data and who should make reports | |
Wow, what a load of useless notes. In the above we have the following things that are important and worth noting:
- Key Decisions
- Task assignments
- Feedback opportunities
- Irrelevant, but important thoughts
- Things I’d do differently if I were in a different role
So I took the Cornell System and created my own note taking style. It works really well for me, and you’re most welcome to use and adapt it anyway you want to. Here’s my notes of the same meeting:
| Sales Projection Meeting – 2010-04-10 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| D | Don’t interrupt meetings for water-cooler talk | ||
| C | Norm to get last 5 years of sales data in Excel format to Sally by COB today | ||
| C | Sally to provide initial projections by COB tomorrow via email to me | ||
| T | Get new report format to Sally immediately | ||
|
|||
See? Only what matters, and all on one sheet of paper.
There’s four regions on the page:
- Symbol column This column contains symbols to clearly identify what the note next to it represents. Personally I use geometric shapes, but the letters above work just as well.
C = Commitment by someone else,
T = Something I need to do
D = Observed behaviour I don’t want to copy (D is for Delta) - Prose notes These are the details, in prose, that correspond to the symbol.
- Other notes unrelated to the meeting topic that arise out of the meeting. Often points for feedback in One-on-ones. These tend to be private notes.
- Inspiration and unrelated thoughts. I didn’t mention the projector in the meeting. We didn’t discuss it. But I need to write myself a note so I remember to follow up. If something in the meeting triggers thoughts of a new product idea, I jot it here. It doesn’t belong in the meeting.
The beauty of this system is that Norm and Sally should have done the same thing. But they will have different symbols next to the action items because it’s from their own point-of-view — and they might not have any delta items, I often don’t.
Because the notes comprise mainly of tasks (Who is to do What and by When) we have plenty of time to make sure all three Ws are complete. Note that the original notes don’t have any When information and that the commitments are jumbled up in there somewhere.
