This first installment of an eight-part series on note-taking results from the frequent requests I get to help people write effective reviews of meetings, conferences, programs, and books. The first step to writing focused reviews is note-taking, which is the planning stage of the writing process. Your first draft will go a lot smoother with a strong plan, so let's get started.
***
What is reading, or listening, with a purpose? Actually, many things. For me it could mean making myself a more knowledgeable education consultant, or to better understanding a social issue in becoming a more informed citizen. For you it might mean getting through an academic course, learning a new skill, or passing a high-stakes test. For someone else it might lead to preparing for a terrific vacation experience, choosing the best academic path for a child, or achieving professional mastery in a craft.
Whatever the aim of our reading or listening with a purpose, we can take three useful steps to ensure we make the most of the reading experience.
First, answer: "Why and for whom am I taking notes?" If you're taking them just for yourself, then answer why you need them. To be updated on a project? To learn a new process? To determine the feasibility of an organizational move? To understand how the author created a cultural shift in her company? If you're taking notes for someone like your manager or your team, answer why they need the notes. If you're not sure, ask well before attending the event or reading the book. Without answering this question (I know, it's really two questions), your note-taking experience will be useless.
Second, answer: "What does the audience need to know?" List the necessary items, read them, and reread them to embed them in your consciousness. They will become your mission for attending the meeting or reading the material.
Third, answer: "What methods and sources would best get me the answers I want?" For attending an event, this might mean knowing which parts of the meeting and which speakers are most valuable. These assets shift from meeting to meeting and from book to book. For instance, I once attended a language conference to get a grasp of a speaker's communication theory; when I heard her the following year at the same conference, I was more interested in observing her communication style for my own development as a speaker. As for books, I remember reading Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Flow: The Psychology of Ultimate Experience to learn about his theory, while I read his Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discover and Invention to hear what his renowned subjects had to say about their creative experiences. For reading a book, decide whether you'll read the whole thing, key parts, appendices, and additional resources. Time is of the essence here. You have to be all business.
Now you're planning to listen or to read. You're ready for the next step, listening with a purpose, the topic of the next post.
