Using TaskClone to Link Evernote to Your To-Do List

In the last post, we examined the challenges involved with notes from meetings and phone calls. Follow-up is needed to ensure the to-dos and future appointments you trap in your notes are extracted and entered on your to-do list and calendar. We also examined the importance of linking the to-dos and future appointments to the original notes. Those challenges exist regardless of whether notes are paper-based or digital, and regardless of whether the to-so list and calendar are paper-based or digital.

Mobile devices are becoming ubiquitous in today's world of work. Free services allow devices to sync with each other to make digital creation and digital retrieval from everywhere easy. One question I get with increasing frequency involves best practice for taking notes digitally.

I am experimenting with a service called TaskClone. The service is designed for people who want to take notes in Evernote and also use a digital to-do list. Creating an account takes only a few minutes.

In practice, you would take notes in Evernote. Evernote automatically date-and-time stamps the notes. Give the note a name and take your notes. Some of what you enter will actually be be "to-do" items which need to be performed. You will need to enter these items on your to-do list. Failure to do so will result in responsibilities falling through the cracks because they are hidden within notes, but never make their way to the to-do list.

Each time you find yourself entering something that is not just a piece of information, but is a to-do, precede the item with a check box. Below is a sample of how a note would look in Evernote.

Example of taking notes in Evernote

But, there are some "to-dos" which come out of this meeting. I insert a check box before the to-do item. When I save the note, look what shows up instantly in Toodledo:

How the task looks when sent from TaskClone to Toodledo

If I open the note section of this task, I see the link to the original note in Evernote.

Link to the original meeting notes in Evernote

TaskClone removes the need to review the notes to dissect to-dos. The service automatically sends any item marked with a check box to your digital to-do list. TaskClone supports a variety of to-do lists, including my favorite, Toodledo. The task shows up, worded exactly as in Evernote. In the note section of the task is a link to the original Evernote entry. Therefore, when it's time to do the task, you are one click away from the notes which led to the creation of that task.



Another feature of TaskClone is the ability to take an appointment entered in your notes and enter it on your Google Calendar. You use the check box, just as you did with tasks, but add the word "Schedule," a colon, and a space. That combination causes TaskClone to send whatever follows to your Google Calendar rather than your to-do list. Entering "Schedule: Executive Team Meeting 12/3 3p at Jim's office" will result in an appointment on the Google Calendar called "Executive Team Meeting" scheduled for December 3 at 3:00 p.m. "Jim's office" will appear in the location field. Adding email addresses of invitees will trigger Gmail to send invitations to the meeting. A link to the notes taken in Evernote will appear in the "description" field.



TaskClone offers a free trial. After the trial, the service is extremely reasonable, roughly $15 per year. For those whose jobs involve phone calls and meetings where documentation is important and where dissecting the to-dos from those notes is essential, TaskClone looks like a winner.

Is anyone using TaskClone already? What are your impressions? If you create an account after reading this post, please come back and leave your thoughts about your experiences.

The Challenge of Taking Meeting Notes Digitally

Having an easy system to document the contents of phone calls, one-on-one conferences, and meetings is a crucial asset for any professional. Memories are fuzzy. What is written is permanent and as accurate years later as the day it was penned. I have written about this topic as a result of conversations with those who are interested in my method, spoken about it in this podcast, included it in countless presentations, and addressed it in both of my books.

For years, I have used a paper journal as the one place where these real-time notes are taken. Taking notes is simple. However, the system requires some follow-through so that tasks and meetings identified wind up on the to-do list or calendar. If those notes need to be accessed again, there must be a way to find them easily.

During my live presentations, I see a growing trend in the number of people who want to be able to take notes digitally, particularly on their tablets. The direction I have given them is summed up in a single word: Evernote. To take the conversation a step further, my recommendation is to create a notebook inside Evernote called "Journal." Every phone call, every one-on-one conference, and every meeting will be a new note in the Journal notebook inside Evernote. Evernote date-and-time stamps each note, giving the user a chronological listing of all interactions.

Is digital documentation for you? The main points I ask users to consider are as follows:

I see a growing trend in the number of people who want to be able to take notes digitally, particularly on their tablets.

1. How easy will it be to enter information in Evernote? Will you have a smartphone or tablet accessible and powered up when you need to take notes? Will text entry approach the ease of handwriting on paper? Will you be able to concentrate on the interaction, or will you have to concentrate too much on the text entry?
2. How will your entry in a digital device be perceived by others in the meeting? Will they feel you are not fully engaged with them because of your attention to text entry?

After pondering those two points, are you are still interested in digital documentation? If so, you need a procedure to make sure things do not fall through the cracks. First, realize your notes will combine both reference information and to-do items.

In our world of back-to-back meetings and phones which never stop ringing, time to dissect the notes immediately is usually not available. However, part of each day's regiment must include reviewing all notes taken during the day with one question in mind: "What do I need to do about what I wrote?" The answers to that question become entries on the to-do list or appointments on the calendar. Failure to conduct that review means to-dos and future meetings may be identified and recorded in the meeting notes, but never make it any further. Appointments are missed because they were never entered on the calendar. Responsibilities falls through huge cracks because they were recorded in meeting notes, but never entered on the to-do list.

Secondly, when completing a task, the original notes may embed critical information about completing that task. How can you find the correct notes quickly?

This post presents the challenge. If you are reader of The Daily Home, my column in today's edition supplies the answer. For everyone else, Friday's post will show you a service which provides an automated solution.

What is your system for taking notes during meetings and phone calls? How to you find those notes when you need them?

Documentation Made Easy: The Journal

The subject for this article was shaped by two totally independent conversations, both held within one week. I had the pleasure of conducting a full-day workshop with a group of east Tennessee administrators. One of the principals had heard me present before. She is extremely technology savvy, and the group as a whole was knowledgeable about technology and hungry for more. A few minutes before I began, she asked me, “Will you be talking about the journal you use for documentation?”

Later in the same week, I was visiting a friend who is principal at a school which is on the cutting edge of technology in many ways. During the day, the topic of conversation turned to “the journal.” How interesting these two conversations with digital people turned to this paper-based topic!

As digital as I am, my journal has been a trusted friend for many years. It is nothing more than a book of blank lined paper with all of its contents arranged chronologically. When I sit down for a one-on-one conference, that book opens. It goes with me to every meeting and is open on my desk ready to accept notes from every phone call. Moreover, it is one journal. Not one for meetings, another for one-on-one discussions, another to serve as a phone log, etc. One journal holds everything. Therein lies the beauty and simplicity of it all.

Each day begins where the previous one left off. At the end of the day, I make decisions on what I need to do about those notes and put the results of those decisions on my to-do list. I also think about when I may want to see those notes again. When all of the pages are full, the journal goes on the shelf and a new one takes its place. In one of the conversations mentioned, a principal told of an issue involving dismissing a teacher in the middle of the previous school year. Every administrator knows that documentation, and lots of it, is necessary to make a termination stick. The principal explained how documentation of the teacher’s performance had been included in the journal. Before dismissing the teacher, an attorney was consulted to determine if the documentation was sufficient.

The attorney’s response came in two parts. First, he said, the amount and detail of the documentation was sufficient. Equally important was there was documentation related to so many different things. It was obvious this was not a plot to single out one person, but rather a comprehensive system of documentation that captures the good, the bad, the routine, and the out-of-the-ordinary, all in one place.

Those who have attended workshops with me hear of the day during my principalship the Department of Human Resources showed up at my door to tell me that a complaint had been filed against one of my teachers. As the case worker talked, I opened my journal to notes taken months earlier which showed clearly the teacher had done nothing wrong. Before leaving my office, that complaint was dropped, all because of the documentation I had taken during a routine meeting, notes I thought I would never need again.

 We never know when a situation that seems unimportant may later become crucial. We need a system that allows us to trap notes on the fly, needs next to no maintenance, and allows us to get back to our notes on demand. My journal has made the job of documentation easy…easy enough I will actually do it.

What They All Have in Common...

The last several weeks have provided me wonderful experiences:

• Presenting to Alabama assistant principals at two live conferences
• Presenting to Illinois administrators in a three-hour webinar
• Presenting four sessions to Alabama National Board Certified Teachers at their annual conference
• Presenting four sessions for Mississippi educators at their annual educational technology conference

While their locations and roles in education may have differed, these groups have in common 3 important concepts:

• They are all interested in ideas, particularly in the area of technology, which are relevant and can be implemented immediately.
• They will all leave the convention atmosphere of excitement and return to lives where emails, voice mails, and paperwork have been accumulating in their absence.
• Their abilities to implement what they learned will be directly related to their abilities to organize their surroundings and manage their time.

When we step back into our lives, the conference bag is often thrown into the corner until we "have a chance to get to it." Months later, the notes have grown cold, the ideas have faded, and good intentions turn into guilty promises to do better next time.

Two tools provide the structure that will turn good ideas into regular parts of our daily lives. Both are tools which are regular topics in my presentations on organization and time management at conferences just such as these.

The Journal
When I attend a conference, my journal is one of the items thrown into the briefcase. It's nothing more than a bound book of blank lined pages. The magic is that the same journal opens every time I send or receive a phone call, every time I meet with someone where topics of significance will be discussed, and every time I join a group setting where I plan to learn something or come away with commitments to myself or others.

Where one day leaves off, the next one begins. When I attend a conference session, I am not at a loss to know where to write things down. Just open the book to the next blank line and start writing.

As I write, "to-dos" will occur to me. I write those down along with the other notes. I help myself by putting an asterisk (*) beside anything I write that is not just a piece of information, but is instead a "to-do" for me. With a plan as simple as this, I can keep up with the speaker and make sure I leave the session with the ideas I need in order to implement great ideas trapped in the pages of my journal.

The To-Do List
Later in the day, when the dust settles, I revisit the journal. My responsibility is to look at what I wrote during the day and decide exactly what I need to do about any of it. The results of those decisions goes on my to-do list. I word them clearly enough that I will know exactly what I was talking about tomorrow, a week from now, or a month from now.

I do not re-copy the notes from the journal. If I have details in those notes needed when completing the "to-dos" on my list, I put the date the notes were taken in parentheses beside the appropriate item on my list. When I look at the item on the to-do list, the date in parentheses say to me, "Look here for information."

Most importantly, I make a decision as to when I want to see that to-do and assign it an appropriate due date. Cleaning up email, voice mail, snail mail, unpacking, and putting out fires which erupted while away at the conference will always take precedence over the creative ideas learned during the conference. So, we need to be realistic. When will we have the time to give the new ideas and their implementation the time they deserve? Assign a date. Now go about the process of clearing the backlog which accumulated over the last several days.

Rest assured your to-do list is going to make sure the good ideas you learned at the conference are not forgotten.

Our roles differ. Our noble aims, and the tools with which we accomplish them, are much the same.  

Note Taking: "Day in the Life" Example

In the previous two posts, I talked about note-taking and the role of pencil and paper versus a laptop or tablet. To better understand this post, take a moment to read "Puzzled About Where to Take Notes?" and "Puzzled About here to Take Notes? Part II".

This past Tuesday, I attended a three-hour planning meeting regarding a project in which I have a key role. This post will walk you through the notes I took and what happens to them later.

Our meeting consisted of five people. One person took notes on a legal pad, a second in a spiral notebook, two others on iPads, and me with my journal. One thing I noticed was the three taking notes with pen and paper were taking considerably more notes than those using iPads.

At the top of the page, I wrote the date and below it the name of the committee. The meeting opened with a short video conference between the five of us and two people located in another city. The platform being used was called "ooVoo," a program similar to Skype, but with what seemed like some advantages. Several of us were unfamiliar with the platform, and some of the discussion during that video conference centered around the platform itself rather than the agenda of the meeting. I was certainly one asking some of those question!

So where do I write the notes about "ooVoo," a topic unrelated to the basic agenda of the meeting? Do I turn to another page? Do I just try to remember this one-off topic for later? No. The notes about ooVoo go right on that same page on the next blank line. I intend to research the platform later, so I jot a note to do so and place just ahead of it an asterisk, my shorthand that what I have written is not just documentation, but a "to-do."

At one point, we talked about a conference held annually each September, and the desire of one of the committee members for me to able to attend. I jotted a note on the next blank line to research the dates for that conference and mark it tentatively on my calendar. As you might guess, I preceded this "to-do" with another asterisk.

At another point, we set several future dates. We each checked our respective calendars to be sure we were free. I jotted those dates in my journal, again preceded by an asterisk. Why did I not just enter those dates into my BlackBerry's calendar and be done with it?

Two reasons. First, I need to let my wife know about those dates so that she can put them on her calendar. If I simply entered them on my BlackBerry, there would be no "trigger" to later share these dates with her. Even though my calendar is also synced to Outlook and to a Google calendar to which my wife has access, there is an important point to be made. When dates simply appear on calendars with no notification to its owner, it's a recipe for disaster.

Secondly, good meetings take preparation. When I sit down to process the meeting notes and place the dates on my calendar, I also have the opportunity to think through what preparation needs to happen, and place those to-dos in my task list.

During a three-hour meeting, I must admit there were times when my mind wandered. I thought about things I need to handle that had nothing to do with the subject of that meeting. Where did I write those things down? Right on the next blank line with asterisks in front of any to-do. Nobody knew whether I was taking notes about the subject of the meeting or something entirely different.

When the meeting was over, I had a plenty of notes germane to the agenda. I had some "to-dos" related to that agenda. I also had to-dos related to "ooVoo" and other items totally apart from the purpose of the meeting. Yes, those notes were all mixed together. The important thing is that taking those notes was easy. There was no question about where to write. There was no "drag." There was nothing that discouraged liberal note-taking. The next thing got written on the next line. Later, I process the notes. I make decisions about what needs to be done, put the to-dos in my list and assign due dates.

Once I have processed my notes, I will probably never have to look them again. But if I do, they are easy to find. If I know the date, I know exactly where to look, whether it's a meeting, a phone call, or any other interaction where I would be taking notes.

This discussion may have been too detailed for some, but hopefully right on target for others who want the detailed "day in the life" scenario I have given you here.

After three posts related to taking notes, how has this series changed your thoughts? How has it reinforced your thoughts? What changes do you see down the road that may change the way we all approach this activity?

What Happens to Those Conference Notes?

Many of us just returned from the Alabama Educational Technology Conference. Many will shortly be leaving for ISTE. As you look around during sessions, people are taking notes. In recent years, more and more are taking notes on laptops. This year, tablets were in abundant supply.

Now the conference is over. You have stepped back into "your life." So where are those conference notes right now? What will happen to them over the next few days? The next few months? The next few years?

Whether you attended AETC or any other conference, I am interested in your "system."

What do you you use to take your notes? How and where do you organize them later so that set of notes becomes part of your total package? What's your mechanism for sharing your notes with others? The more detailed you can be, the more it can help other readers with their own systems.

Documentation Revisited

In November, I wrote this post along with podcast on the subject of documentation.

Here is a comment from a reader along with my response:

This is a really helpful strategy - I previously used a notebook that was similar, a running log of 'everything'. I was definitely missing the date references and table of contents to make it really work though, and have let it slip for awhile.

I found that I was going through about a notebook every month and half or so. When I go to a recurring committee meetings, I need to be able to review past notes - how would this work best? Use the notebook but add a copy of the meeting notes into the project/committee folder? Most things don't need to be saved in special groups like that, but I'm struggling with project support/meeting notes. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Jen,

A couple of suggestions come to mind. Since you are maintaining a folder for each committee, make a "table of contents" on the inside of the folder. You could simply list the dates and a couple of key words related to the major topics covered. If that folder goes with you to meetings, you can look at that list and quickly flip to the exact spot in your journal.

Another thought is to use colored Post-it flags. Assign a different color to each committee and flag each meeting with its color. That way, every red flag represents a meeting of the "XYZ" committee, yellow for the "ABC" committee, etc.

Both of those are paper-based options. If you use a smartphone that has a section for notes, another suggestion would be to create a note for each committee called something like "Meeting Notes--(Name of Committee)." Within each note, list the dates that committee met and a few key words about major topics. No matter where you are, you have your smartphone and your journal, so you are only a few seconds away from putting your hands on the notes for any meeting or any committee for the last month and a half.

During "Get Organized Month," this is question is so important because it is a scenario to which so many busy professionals can relate.

What are your thoughts? How do you handle note-taking during meetings, phone calls, etc.?

How Do You Keep Up With What Has Been Delegated to Others?

We all have those situations where the responsibility for action belongs to someone else, yet whether or not they follow through impacts us. Consider these situations:

1. You are working on a project with other people and have delegated certain tasks to them. How do you make sure everyone comes through with the deliverables?
2. Someone borrows books or other belongings from you. How do you keep up with what you have loaned? What sort of trigger will cause you to mention something when an item is not returned?
3. You have placed an order with a company. How do you keep up with what you have ordered? At what point would you call to ask about the status of the order? What is the trigger that would cause you to make that call?

As long as we live in a world where our happiness, success, longevity, or whatever else is in part dependent on someone else, we need to have some system that will allow us to hold others accountable.

As a young teacher, my tools were a pocket memo pad and a set of tickler files. When someone borrowed my stuff, I immediately made a note in that memo pad...something like, "Expect to receive XYZ book from Steve. Loaned on Oct. 3." After asking myself what would be a reasonable time frame in which to ask Steve if he was finished with the book, the little sheet from the memo pad would be thrown into the appropriate tickler file.

When I placed an order with a company, I would take a copy of the order and write "Expect to receive" on the top of the form, decide when it should arrive, and throw the form in the tickler file for around that time.

When someone was supposed to handle a task and then get back with me, a little note saying, "Expect to receive reply from John" went in the tickler file for around the time I wanted to check on progress.

Over time, "Expect to receive" was shortened to "ETR," and although the tools have changed, that acronym has stuck. Instead of a slip of paper thrown into a tickler file, so many of those little "ETR" items become tasks in Outlook. When the ball is in the other person's court, "ETR" is going to be in the task line. I select a due date, save, and forget about it. The system does my remembering.

When the due date arrives, I am looking at the "ETR" item, and there is my trigger to take action. What if I want to see at a glance all of the things that I am counting on from other people? In Outlook, I click the Task button and type the letters "ETR" in the search window. I am now looking at a complete list of every task with that configuration of letters. If I am doing the same thing on my BlackBerry, I go to the Taskpad (Outlook 2003) or To-Do Bar (Outlook 2007), enter "ETR," and I am looking at a list of everything others owe me.

By the same token, I could enter the name of a person, "Bill" for example. I would see everything Bill owes me, every phone call I am supposed to make to him, everything I had borrowed from him, etc. all in order by due date.

Our lives are complex. We have a great deal to "keep up with." Keeping up with those delegated items is among them. Three little letters keep me on top of it all.

Documentation: It's Easier Than You Think

Being selected to give the "Final Word" for the October edition of The Audio Journal was an honor. In this post, I talked about that experience.

Every teacher is counseled early in his/her career to "document," yet few people are every given a good system. And by "good,"  I mean it is easy enough you will actually do it--not for a day, not for a week, but for an entire career.

Here is the podcast that appeared as the "Final Word." Sometimes it's the little things that make a big difference. This is one of those times.

Documentation and "The Final Word"

Those who have attended Get Organized! workshops have heard me talk not only about the importance of documentation, but the ease with which this skill can be implemented...provided you have a good system. Those who receive my monthly newsletter heard a little more about that topic last month.

This month, a short podcast on documentation is being featured as "The Final Word" on The Audio Journal. The Audio Journal is a monthly "executive briefing" on CD that is mailed to over 3,000 busy educators who choose this method as a way to stay on top of trend and ideas in their field. The companion website distributes the same material through streaming audio. My thanks to Dr. James Cisek, who extended the invitation to be featured as "The Final Word" in the current edition. People who have been featured in this segment recently include Harry Wong, Tom Peters, Warren Bennis, and Lou Holtz, so I feel pretty honored.

But, this blog is not about me; it's about getting the word out to other people about easy tools and techniques which improve our ability to work and play. Thanks to Dr. Cisek for bringing part of that message to the 3,000+ subscribers to this professional development series.

You can not only listen to the podcast but take a test-drive of the entire site for 7 days absolutely free. Click here, and after responding to the agreement statement, choose the "I want a no-obligation 7-day free trial" option. Happy listening!

An Easy System for Documentation

Habits take about a month to form. The habit of writing things down as soon as they arrive is the single biggest time management and organizational tool, as well as a great stress reliever. Going one step further is the question of WHERE to write it. For those familiar with the Day-Timer, I want to focus on the right-hand page, the page called “Diary and Work Record.” Franklin-Covey has a similar page.

This page is meant to take the place of the memo pad by the phone, the grocery list by the refrigerator, the back of an envelope you grab to jot a phone number, and the Post-It notes that decorate your desk. Here are some examples of what you might find on that right-hand page:

1. You get a call from a friend inviting you to a party. While he tells you the particulars of the day, time, what to bring, and directions on how to get there, you jot it all in one place—today’s right-hand page. When the call is over, you can close the book and resume doing whatever it was you were doing, trusting that all of the information has been captured in your planner.
2. You order some materials over the phone. The right-hand page is where you jot down the name of the person you spoke with, his/her extension, the order confirmation number, any discount you will receive, and other information you might need later.
3. You normally go to the grocery store on Saturday afternoon, so Saturday’s right-hand page is the place to make the grocery list. Every time you think of something you need, flip to Saturday, jot it on the right-hand page, and close the book.
4. You have a conference scheduled with a parent. Every time you think of something you want to discuss, open the book to the day of that conference and enter it on the right-hand page. You are building an agenda as you go. During the conference, take notes on the right-hand page.

A quick review of that right-hand page at the end of the day is vital in keeping the system alive. Look at what you have written throughout the day on today’s right-hand page and ask yourself, “What does this mean to me?” or “When will I need to see this again?”

The first example was an invitation to a party. When you look at those notes at the end of the day, that will be your cue to flip to the appropriate day in your planner and note the party on the appropriate time slot. You also see from your notes that there are a few items you are to bring. You flip to Saturday’s page and jot on the right-hand page a couple of items you need to buy at the grocery store.

On the day of the party, how are you going to remember what to bring? How are you going to remember how to get there? Here is the real magic of that right-hand page—being able to go right back to information exactly when you need it. Let’s say the conversation about the party happened on May 10. As you review your notes at the end of the day, you will not only turn in your planner to the day it is going to occur and write “Party” by the correct time slot, but you will also put out beside it this—(5/10). Anything in parentheses in your planner tells you, “Go to this date for more information.” When its time to get ready to leave for the party, that little note that says (5/10) tells you to look back in your planner to May 10. Now you are right back at the notes you took. You are looking at a list of what to bring and directions on how to get there!

We have talked about taking notes on the right-hand page when placing orders by phone. When the call is over, your documentation is over. At the end of the day, you look at your notes and ask yourself what would be a reasonable amount of time to allow for the order to arrive. You flip ahead in your planner and in the to-do section, you write “Acme (5/10)”. When that date arrives, that entry sends you back in your planner to May 10, the day you placed the order with the Acme company. When you call to check on the order, you have the phone number with extension, the name of the person you talked with, confirmation number, and all of the information you need at your fingertips.

We all know that documentation is important. It’s about time we had a system that was easy enough that we would actually do it!

An Easy System for Documentation

Habits take about a month to form. The habit of writing things down as soon as they arrive is the single biggest time management and organizational technique, as well as a great stress reliever. Going one step further is the question of WHERE to write it. For those familiar with the Day-Timer, I want to focus on the right-hand page, the page called “Diary and Work Record.” Franklin-Covey has a similar page.

This page is meant to take the place of the memo pad by the phone, the grocery list by the refrigerator, the back of an envelope you grab to jot a phone number, and the Post-It notes that decorate your desk. Here are some examples of what you might find on that right-hand page:

1. You get a call from a friend inviting you to a party. While he tells you the particulars of the day, time, what to bring, and directions on how to get there, you jot it all in one place—today’s right-hand page. When the call is over, you can close the book and resume doing whatever it was you were doing, trusting that all of the information has been captured in your planner.
2. You order some materials over the phone. The right-hand page is where you jot down the name of the person you spoke with, his/her extension, the order confirmation number, any discount you will receive, and other information you might need later.
3. You normally go to the grocery store on Saturday afternoon, so Saturday’s right-hand page is the place to make the grocery list. Every time you think of something you need, flip to Saturday, jot it on the right-hand page, and close the book.
4. You have a conference scheduled with a parent. Every time you think of something you want to discuss, open the book to the day of that conference and enter it on the right-hand page. You are building an agenda as you go. During the conference, take notes on the right-hand page.

A quick review of that right-hand page at the end of the day is vital in keeping the system alive. Look at what you have written throughout the day on today’s right-hand page and ask yourself, “What does this mean to me?” or “When will I need to see this again?”

The first example was an invitation to a party. When you look at those notes at the end of the day, that will be your cue to flip to the appropriate day in your planner and note the party on the appropriate time slot. You also see from your notes that there are a few items you are to bring. You flip to Saturday’s page and jot on the right-hand page a couple of items you need to buy at the grocery store.

On the day of the party, how are you going to remember what to bring? How are you going to remember how to get there? Here is the real magic of that right-hand page—being able to go right back to information exactly when you need it. Let’s say the conversation about the party happened on May 10. As you review your notes at the end of the day, you will not only turn in your planner to the day it is going to occur and write “Party” by the correct time slot, but you will also put out beside it this—(5/10). Anything in parentheses in your planner tells you, “Go to this date for more information.” When its time to get ready to leave for the party, that little note that says (5/10) tells you to look back in your planner to May 10. Now you are right back at the notes you took. You are looking at a list of what to bring and directions on how to get there!

We have talked about taking notes on the right-hand page when placing orders by phone. When the call is over, your documentation is over. At the end of the day, you look at your notes and ask yourself what would be a reasonable amount of time to allow for the order to arrive. You flip ahead in your planner and in the to-do section, you write “Acme (5/10)”. When that date arrives, that entry sends you back in your planner to May 10, the day you placed the order with the Acme company. When you call to check on the order, you have the phone number with extension, the name of the person you talked with, confirmation number, and all of the information you need at your fingertips.

We all know that documentation is important. It’s about time we had a system that was easy enough that we would actually do it!

Frank Buck