Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0554: Reprise: How to take minimal notes to stay focused in meetings

Episode Date: April 21, 2016

Reprise: How to take minimal notes to stay focused in meetings What do you want to learn? Leave your question at http://MasterOfMemory.com/. Music credit: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet, 2nd movement, performed by the US Army Band.

Hey guys, this is Timothy, and I'm publishing a book. Now, this may not be new news to all of you, but I bring it up because it's temporarily changing some things here on the show. We're going to be running a series of reprise episodes for the next few weeks due to my need to focus exclusively on this writing project. The book is going to cover absolutely everything about language hacking that I've learned from years of working directly with fluency coaching students and native speaking coaches to see what truly works and gets amazing results. It's going to be a high-end book with the hardcover copy priced at around $40, and that's if I can keep it as short as I'd like to keep it.

But as podcast listeners, you can actually get a free digital copy of the book if you sign up early. Just go to Spanishin1month.com, and you'll be on the early bird list to get access to the book the day that it's released. Meanwhile, for now, enjoy this rerun of one of my favorite episodes from the last few months. Welcome to Master of Memory. I'm Timothy, and I'm here to answer your accelerated learning questions every day and to inspire and empower you to learn anything you want to learn faster than ever. John submitted a written question at masterofmemory.com slash question. John says, I'm hoping you have any advice for remembering information in work meetings. I'm an IT professional any advice for remembering information in work meetings. I'm an IT professional and often am in meetings with various teams.

Information is discussed on areas that don't involve me, so I find myself tuning out. I then get asked a question and I'm not paying attention. It would be great to remember key information and at least record it to paper after the meeting. I think that this would also help me stay focused throughout the entire meeting. By the way, what was the name of the music at the end of your podcasts? So John, the music, both at the beginning and at the end of the podcasts, is the second movement of Ravel's string quartet in F major, and it's one of my favorite pieces of music, and that's why I've used it in the podcast. I just like to brand it based on my personality and the type of stuff that's interesting to me. So again, that's the string quartet in F major by Maurice Ravel, R-A-V-E-L.

And you'll want to look up the second movement. It's pretty fantastic. To get to your memory-based question, so it seems to me that this all comes down to a good use of notes. If you're getting distracted during your meetings, then you want to be able to find a way to get back to the main topic at hand and particularly to the things that you're going to be asked about and actually need to remember and not get distracted from those. So here's just an idea, something that I'm thinking of. Make minimal notes using actually a paper timeline. So you could take a piece of 8x11 paper, use it in portrait mode or vertical so you have it taller than it is wide, and then write a line down the center is what you could consider to be the main subject or the main set of information that is relevant to you. Then as the meeting progresses, you can go down the paper and use arrows that visually move between subjects as time goes by. So they may move from the main subject to something else.

And then you could, as the subject goes back around to the main subject, you can point the arrows back. You may make additional small notes around there to note what those other subjects are that were moved to and maybe put little pieces of information on your notes. But roughly what it's generally doing is you just have the main subject down the middle and you're showing as the conversation goes away from and back to that subject. And everything else is just sort of the information that branches off of that. Now, something interesting you might do if you're not actually talking, but you do want to stay on track and you do want to keep the main subject that's relevant to you in mind. You might actually pretend in your head to be redirecting the conversation. So someone says something, you might think of what you would actually do yourself to have what they said logically lead back to the main subject.

There are techniques for doing that. It's something that is a skill that's attainable. Although, you know, I'm talking about real conversation, you're doing this in your head. At the conversation toolbox stuff at masterofmemory.com, we'll have more information about that sort of thing. It's a topic that excites me. And it's a skill that transfers to this because you can think about, you know, you're thinking actively as if you're saying something yourself about the way that the topic

that is not really relevant to what you're talking about can relate back to what you think is more important for you to know. So that's my suggestion, John, just thinking about everything as it relates to the subjects that you're most likely to be asked about and what are supposed to be discussed in the meeting and just trying to relate everything back to that. That'll keep you the most active, that'll help you listen to everything that's being said, but always from the perspective of what's most important. For anyone listening, what do you want to learn? The world's knowledge can be yours.

Leave your learning request at masterofmemory.com slash question, and I'll talk to you again soon.