Note taking, a skill I never picked up - any suggestions?
Hello all,
I have worked in IB, PE, HF and now I finally ended up in Consulting. I never had to take notes this extensive before. In the past I have just jotted down things in a notebook or pad and moved on. It wasn't a big deal. Now it is.
I am in so many meetings with various members of the client team, it's getting so difficult to keep up. Controller says one thing, CFO says something else...etc. My notes are just pages of scribble. From a technical perspective, I feel as if I am slightly ahead of my peers here, because I have worked in almost every aspect of finance. Many times, after a conference call or meeting, we will discuss next steps, and I will weigh in, for example stock valuation. I'll speak about it from a previous experience at a portfolio company, and then the PMO or project lead (I am a Sr. Mgr) will ask, "Well why the hell didn't you say that during the call?". To which my response is, "I was taking notes." That's only going to fly for so long. I am constantly getting told to speak up, and now I am embarrassed enough to put aside my pride and ask for help.
I wanted to know if anyone uses any programs (software) or any special method to note taking. I have never used One Note before, but I am going to look into it and see if it can help me keep track of all of the back and forth.
This seems like a silly question in my head. Had someone asked me this 6-months ago at my last position, I probably would have made a sarcastic remark.
I think you should try to look for business abbreviations where possible when taking notes. You can learn shorthand, but the learning curve is going to be too high. Once you've taken notes on paper, just put them simply into Microsoft Word and label the file accordingly. Then you can easily search your desktop for any note, just like you would in Google.
The essence of taking notes is to only write down the most important highlights. Instead of furiously scribbling down everything people are saying -- which is what I think you are currently doing -- just write down the most important information.
You can also use Livescribe or Audacity on computer to record the conversation so that you can go back to it later in case you missed something when referring to your notes.
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