Have you ever had a waitress take your order and try to remember it? It rarely works like it should. The waitress is confident that it won’t be a problem, but if the order gets too complicated or specific, the chances are that something will be forgotten. To the waitress it’s just another hamburger, but to the customer, they don’t want to scrap off mayonnaise or have an allergy to some product that could do them harm.
But it’s not waitresses that should write details down, it’s all of us. Whether it’s your new years resolutions, or tasks that you need to remember for getting your house fixed up, it helps to write notes and memos to keep you accountable and to help remembering what your priorities are today.
Simple as it sounds, I’m amazed how often I’m in an important meeting with other executives, vendors and potential business partners where they’re not taking notes on things that I will most certainly insist on later. This happened continually during a project I took part in recently and it caused endless backtracking on the part of the team the Rescue Mission had hired to do the work.
Here’s a few good reasons to start writing stuff down:
1. You look like a genius. If you can remember the details everyone else forgot since the last meeting, you look like the one A player amongst a bunch of C players.
2. You will be reminded of important details. Success is often in the details and when you dont’ remember something that is critical to the success of the project you are lowering your chances to make the customer or boss happy.
3. You don’t have to use emotional energy and will power to remember things, you can stay in the moment. If you write it down, you can move on instead of spending precious energy on your memory.
4. You’ll have a road map. To do lists aren’t the end-all of success, but so many people set out on a task with no clear direction what to do next. Having notes will help.
5. Satisfaction of getting things done. When you’re scratching something off the list, or erasing it from the list, it feels great.
What challenges are there to becoming someone who writes things down? What keeps you from doing it? Let me know your thoughts.
David Curry
