Taking Notes on the Quest for Good

I’ve always envied people who can quickly remember things. Fast recollection of names, dates, addresses, schedules, and meeting outcomes is an impressive accelerator. Remembering the details is a constant struggle for me. Lacking a total recall ability, taking physical notes is the only way that my brain can keep track and process the things happening in my world. 

Early in my career I remember colleagues commenting and poking fun at my compulsive note taking, writing everything down from work instructions to how to configure an early version of a local area network that we used to process refugee interviews in Abidjan, West Africa back in 2003. I have a few of these humanitarian response notebooks in the archives. They contain gear lists, travel planning, and notes from too many coordination meetings that happen between humanitarian responders in a disaster response setting. 

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Notes can help us process and document the details of what we need to create our best work in the Social Sectors. The notes and journals of Social Sector Titan Samantha Power, who now leads the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), serve as the foundation for her powerful personal story, The Education of an Idealist. 

Text vs visual notes
Drawing is also part of the note taking process. In his book Draw to Win, Dan Roam shows the creative and cognitive benefits of drawing  with others to understand complex things and solve problems. Drawing, alone and with others, was likely an early type of human communication that still works in our 21st century digitally connected world. 

Many of my notebooks still look like long streams of text:

Mapping out the week looks like this: 

But I’m increasingly experimenting with integrated drawing and text support:

Hardware for taking notes
My journal of choice is the hard bound 8X12’ unlined sketchbook from Strathmore. This gives the ultimate freedom to write or draw at any size. It also doubles as a kid drawing pad for emergency (and fun) diversions:

This is my ‘commonplace book’. Many thinkers throughout the ages have used a similar system to document and remember things that helped them do good in the world. 

Unlike some loyal pen geeks out there, I have a rotating stash of pens and pencils that are used, lost, and found on a regular basis. A few of my recent favorites are the Pilot erasable pens and a regular No. 2 pencil with a fat eraser. Each one makes it possible to correct frequent mistakes without crossing out. 

My work requires a lot of time on a computer. Drawing graphics about process, connections, networks, and strategy can augment the power of written words. My preferred drawing program there is Google Slides, connecting shapes and arrows. The new platform Miro, allows  you to easily turn your notes into professional looking drawings like this: 

Software for taking notes
There are an endless number of online note taking programs on the market today. I have settled on the free version of Evernote. This is an online notebook with sub-notes. I can tag and upload photos like receipts and whiteboard drawings easily. 

Old School Note Cards
After a lifetime of reading both good and useless books and not remembering or retaining much of either category, I recently stumbled upon a way to categorize what you learn and read. Ryan Holiday describes his  note card system from his mentor Robert Greene that he uses to organize information and write books. 

He describes a system of reading each book or document, and highlighting and writing in the margins as you proceed. A week after finishing the book, return and transfer the most useful notes and highlights onto individual 4’X 6’ notecards. Tag the cards and keep them in a photo box organized by topic. My slowly filling storage system looks like this: 

This box then makes it possible to refer back and reorganize the cards into themes that can support your writing or design process. 
 
The danger of an overly organized system 
Whatever your system of notating the world, make sure that you are also doing the hard work of producing your craft. It is easy to go down the rabbit hole of a well-organized Evernote system as a way to look busy and not produce that creative thing that actually moves the needle on your Social Sector mission. 

The end result of our project, document, or other work output is all that matters. The process of getting to that point matters, but should not distract from the ultimate end of doing good in the world. 

Finding, assembling, and understanding information creates the raw material that is the first step toward doing meaningful  work for the common good. Give  yourself that edge with a note taking system that works for you. 

What systems do you use? Hit me up on email or leave a post on the blog. 


Happy trails.