Naiman Labs Newsletter #24. Your note-taking superpower

Hi friends! Welcome to this week's newsletter! In today's edition, we will explore the often overlooked but immensely valuable skill of efficient note-taking. As simple as it sounds I believe this is one of the most underrated, undervalued and missed by many skills.

It's surprising how such a seemingly simple practice can greatly enhance your professional life.

I will walk you through my personal note-taking experience and how I understood its value.

Being an HR Business Partner, I need to keep track of a lot of things and ensure that I don't miss any important information received from our team members and key stakeholders. I have a variety of meetings, including one-on-ones, group sessions, and brainstorming sessions. Each conversation yields a wealth of vital information that needs to be captured, processed, and utilized effectively.

To me, every conversation is a valuable research opportunity. I might discover problems or unresolved issues faced by our team members, or I might gather interesting suggestions on how our HR team can improve their lives. It would be extremely disappointing to miss out on these valuable insights and lose the opportunity to address them.

At my previous experience back in management consulting I saw the same. Consider the scenario of consultants conducting structured interviews with clients.

Imagine if consultants talk to the client, conducting structured interviews, spend a lot of time and efforts for those meetings. Failing to record and retain the notes, ideas, and key points discussed would be disastrous. Efficient note-taking is vital in such situations, ensuring that critical information is not lost and can be effectively utilized.

Improving my Note-Taking Process:

I have always taken notes in non-structured way. I was using various note-taking apps depends on the process I was working with. Sometimes it was a simple paper notebook, sometimes - word docs, google docs, apple notes, powerpoint slides.

I decided that it’s time to do better and I wanted to add some system to my note-taking process. To do this I applied my favorite approach: “methodology - process - system” to solve this problem. (I wrote about this here. Try it, it’s very helpful)

As for the methodology, I adopted Tiago Forte's Second Brain approach. However, I haven't implemented it fully yet, as Second Brain is a complex framework that requires gradual development. Nevertheless, I have incorporated some of its valuable insights into my note-taking process.

To begin, I started by identifying the primary sources of information and the various channels through which I receive notes.

📥 Identifying Note Sources: I started by identifying all the sources of notes I have. This is my list:

1. Personal notes and ideas. Mostly quick text format.

2. Meeting notes: group notes, 1-1s, brainstorms

3. E-mails, Slack messages

4. Notes from podcasts and videos - quotes, ideas, research pieces.

5. Some interesting posts, documents and articles.

6. Books, articles notes and summaries.

7. My notes with plans, thoughts, to collect and put ideas on paper

It is important to know your most sources of information you might want to capture.

📂 Categorization.

When I looked at the sources I realised that all my notes might be divided into 2 main groups: quick note-taking and deep note-taking.

Quick note-taking is more about capturing the information. The main goal for me here is to write it down as quickly and as easy and frictionlessly as I can.

Perfect example of quick note taking is 1-1 meetings. Imagine you’re doing walk-and-talk 1-1 meeting. (Great practice, by the way, I am trying to do my 1-1 meeting in walk-and-talk format every time I can. It makes the conversation flow easier and you get a lot of walking steps as well). You need to be able to write down some quick thoughts quickly (using your phone, or your watch), or you can write them quickly as soon as the meeting ends, while the information is still very fresh in your mind.

On the other hand, deep note-taking involves digesting information, summarizing key highlights, identifying patterns, and engaging in creative processes such as project planning or concept development.

🏗️ Embracing CODE approach.

Overall this 2 note-taking types as I called them strongly correlate with the CODE approach lying at the core of the Second Brain mentioned earlier.

CODE stands for 4 steps of note-taking:

• Capture: quickly write down what resonates

• Organise: store it right

• Distill: don’t keep all the information, but the key highlights and summaries

• Express: use the notes you have to create new knowledge

Quick note-taking is about capturing and organising - write it down and store it in a way you can easily find the note whenever you need it.

Deep note-taking is about distilling and expressing - summarise, add more information, create.

🗒️ Identifying the medium

The next step for me was to understand and to identify the type of notes that I have. The biggest portion is text of course. But also I need to store a lot of PDF documents, images and screenshots, links and webpages.

All of the above are very important inputs to identify the suitable note-taking app for me.

🔬 Reviewing

Another important piece of my note-taking process is review. At the end of my work week I have 30-min block in my calendar. This is my review time. I review the notes I have taken during the week and I identify any action items that I should take further. Every review session is a great source of actions and ideas for me.

I decided to focus on the process and on how I think about the note-taking. Please let me know in the comments if you want to see what apps I was comparing when I was choosing the one I will be using for my note-taking needs.

💪 Note-Taking as Your Superpower:

Remember that note-taking is not only about the tools or apps you use. It's primarily about establishing an effective process and adopting the right approach. Today you can use various AI tools for your note-taking process at meetings and beyond. So explore and find yours! Note-taking is a crucial process for your productivity at work and at life. I am still very surprised that they don’t teach note-taking at school. Find the right way for you and make this skill your superpower. You’ll see how much you will improve the quality of your work and life.

Read more:

📚 Long-read: Building a second brain

🎥 Video: Choosing a note taking app and Trying your note-taking app

📝 Short-read: Your note-taking style