Consulting Journal: Resources

This article is reprinted from The Consulting Journal
http://www.consultingjournal.com

Resources: Notebooks

by David Blakey

My paper notebooks give me a different working style.

[Monday 2 May 2005]

I am fond of note-pads and note-books.

My collection

I carry an A4 pad in my brief-case for making notes that I can tear off and leave with clients. That pad has standard paper, ruled for notes.

I also carry an A4 pad of graph-paper, which is also for notes that I can tear off and leave.

I have a hard-back A4 note-book for my meeting notes and my records of completed tasks.

I have a loose-leaf diary that has a section for notes, and I use the notes pages to describe future meetings and appointments.

I have a loose-leaf A5 note-book for ideas.

I have mentioned some of these note-pads and note-books in previous articles. Whenever I have mentioned them, you might have wondered why I have not got a hand-held computer that I could save my notes on. You might have assumed that I resist technology or that I am unaware of it.

Neither is true. I just prefer a particular style of working. You can think of working styles in terms of windows. When someone is working on a computer, they may have a number of windows open. So one person might switch between windows with one window for each of:

writing and printing free-form notes on the screen using a stylus;
drawing and printing diagrams and graphs;
making notes in meetings;
recording completed tasks;
scheduling meetings;
writing notes for future meetings; and
recording ideas.

If that is your method of working, and it works well for you, then use it.

My style has a lot to do with the size of the pages.

The A4 lined pad is an ideal size for lying on a table and for single sheets to be passed around by several people to write ideas.
The A4 graph pad works in the same way, for drawing diagrams.
The A4 note-book is a good size for recording notes from a meeting and having those notes available to me throughout the whole meeting, especially if I start on the left page.
The diary is 150mm by 95mm, which is a a perfect size for a man's purse.
The A5 loose-leaf ideas book allows more space than a diary page, while remaining small enough to work with when I am away from my desk.

At work

I may not always have my brief-case with me, so I may not have the A4 pads and notebook, but I always have my diary with me when I work and in meetings. My model of working is therefore somewhat different from the model of someone who always carries a hand-held device that they use for every task.

If I go to visit a client, I may not take my brief-case but only the A4 hardback notebook and my diary.

I rarely take the loose-leaf ideas book with me. I usually jot ideas as single lines into my diary or in the A4 notebook and then expand each idea on a separate page of the ideas book.

My model of working means that I do not always have all the windows open that I might need, but that I will certainly have those open that I am likely to need. Consider some examples of how I work.

I may be working at home and the telephone rings. If the caller is someone who wants to set up a meeting, I have my diary with me and I can schedule the meeting and make notes of what the meeting will be about.

I may then do some specific tasks for a client. I shall enter my working times in my diary and note each completed task in my notebook. Sometimes I will add new tasks that will need to be done in future, and mark them in the notebook with an asterisk.

I may go to a meeting with a client to discuss marketing plans. I shall take my brief-case so that I can use the notepads to make notes and pass them round and get written changes and comments on them.

Benefits

The main benefit of my approach is that I always have a page of the right size and purpose available when I need it. If I occasionally do not have my A4 notebook, I can make notes on any sheet of A4 paper and then paste it into the notebook later.

Another benefit is that I do not usually carry anything that I will not need. This means that I have to plan ahead. If I am about to go to a meeting, I have to consider whether I shall need the two pads. This means that I have to plan what I shall do in the meeting. In turn, this means that I have to plan what I expect to achieve in the meeting. This planning does have to be detailed. I just have to ask myself if I want the meeting to be about ideas or about progress or about planning the future. It can be any combination of these.