At some point I realised that I was taking copious notes in team meetings, at conferences, in church and other\u00a0 places and they were not being integrated into my system. I read a few articles about how GTD applies to note taking and began to develop an approach that worked for me.<\/p>\n
1. Using a Notebook<\/strong> – I spent some time in an anti-paper-electronic-zone but found that I was missing using a pen and went back to using a quality journal and gel pen that I keep with me at all times. For every team leadership event that is coming I will start a page and use it to jot down notes for the agenda items that will be covered. Then during the meeting, I will start a new page in which I will take brief notes – particularly about things that need to be followed up or commitments people have made to take action after the meetings.<\/p>\n 2. Creating Helpful Symbols<\/strong> – I want to be able to glance at the page when I look back later and not have to read the whole thing – so I have developed some symbols that help me. I use a small checkbox and put letters next to it to indicate what category of action item it is. Here are some of the categories I currently use:<\/p>\n NA – This is for next actions that still need to be more clearly defined.<\/p>\n WF – This if for items that I am waiting for from people.<\/p>\n E – This is for errands – ie. things that I need to buy or get.<\/p>\n C – This is for phone calls that I need to make.<\/p>\n A – This is for agenda items – in GTD an agenda is something you speak to someone about.<\/p>\n These are written in the margins – either top\/bottom or left\/right margins so I can see them at a glance.<\/p>\n 3. Other Symbols to Use <\/strong>– I have read about people using symbols beyond what I have mentioned here – i.e: (a) If an item is particularly important or insightful, put a star next to it. (b)\u00a0 If an item requires further research or resolution, put a question mark next to it. (c) If an item requires follow-up, put a ballot box (open square) next to it. When the item is completed, I check it off. (d) If you assign a follow-up item to someone, put an open circle next to it (similar to the ballot box but a circle rather than a square) and indicate who is responsible – when the item is completed, check it off.<\/p>\n 4. Processing the Next Actions <\/strong>– I then need to work through my note book and transfer these next actions to my Next Actions page – otherwise they stay hidden away in my notebook. It is important to schedule time to review your notes – ideally it should be done during your Weekly Review.<\/p>\n 5. Completing the Next Actions <\/strong>– When I have attended to the item I will put a tick in the text box – both in my Next Actions list and also in my Notebook – so that when I look back at a previous meeting I don’t have\u00a0 to try and figure out whether or not I have completed the next actions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At some point I realised that I was taking copious notes in team meetings, at conferences, in church and other\u00a0 places and they were not being integrated into my system. I read a few articles about how GTD applies to note taking and began to develop an approach that worked for me. 1. Using a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gtd","category-productivity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ymresourcer.com\/Mark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ymresourcer.com\/Mark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ymresourcer.com\/Mark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ymresourcer.com\/Mark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ymresourcer.com\/Mark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ymresourcer.com\/Mark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154,"href":"https:\/\/ymresourcer.com\/Mark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions\/154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ymresourcer.com\/Mark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ymresourcer.com\/Mark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ymresourcer.com\/Mark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}