The Secret to Note-taking for Busy People

[@LeilaGharani]

Get your free copy of our Cheat Sheet for proper note-taking here: pages.xelplus.com/note-taking-tips

[@chriskobuthi5945]

😊⁰

[@kvanniekerk3792]

Watched this video last night. Today I sat in a 4 hour workshop and applied this technique. It really works. I never logged into my notebook once and got the entire meeting captured on one A4 page. I am a senior business analyst and usually I'd have pages and pages of notes. Now everything is concise, to the point and structured. Hours later, while writing this i can still recall exactly what needs to be done, what decisions were made and what questions need answering. Thank you for sharing the pearl of wisdom.

[@LeilaGharani]

That's great to hear! Makes me happy you could apply it directly at work.

[@growqueen]

Wow 👏 have to watch this video now. 😊

[@devendraaryal8195]

@@LeilaGharani I am from Nepal,following your videos

[@liviapy10]

I've been in the corporate world for 10 years and have never heard this before. Thank you, so much. This will definitely change my meetings. Thanks from Brazil!

[@itsani07]

A recent practice that I am following is to screenshot the meeting video. People and their names appear on the screenshot. Save this with your meeting notes. It helps to remember the peoples faces, names and content.

[@mar4kl]

OMG, this video is gold to anyone who has to take notes! If only someone like you had been around to show me these techniques when I was in high school or college, I bet I could have been a straight A student. As it is, this will help me when I have meetings with my consulting clients, and I plan to try to get my teenage daughter to watch this video as well. Thank you so much for making it.

[@seemasethi2047]

Yes! 👍💫🙏🙏🌹🌹😇❤

[@adnanabbasi9482]

This video shows "the real experience". You described the problems as accurately that only people whose job is involve meetings so often can understand your viewpoint. 100 marks for you! 👍👍👍🏿👍🏿👍👍

[@IvanFreelancer]

I find this Quadrant Method useful not only after meeting, but also before the meeting starts. It is because I can plan what are going to be discussed. It saves so much time. Thanks Leila.

[@arulteimouri]

Thank you Leila. Templates make the world work...and you reminded me!! You Rock!!!

[@LeilaGharani]

You are so welcome and thank you!

[@shivamrai162]

A very powerful tip that just came to my mind. As soon as you join an organization, quickly assess what kinds of workloads are recurring which you will have to do on a daily or weekly basis, and quickly brainstorm your mind to find ways to make to reduce manual efforts and create a system to achieve quality results with sufficient output. Now because this is a recurring task, you don't need to worry about it once you repeat the process few times. Infact, following this strategy, you will save so much of brain capacity to learn and focus on others things.

[@gurudattkeshav]

The Quadrant method is my most brilliant lesson learnt yet in 2023. Thank you Leila 👍

[@CaptainQueue]

I just retired after a 45 year communications career in several large corporations. After viewing your excellent system, I see how my own note-taking with far too much detail was actually a limiting factor for recalling what was decided in all those meetings. Where were you 30-40 years ago! Salute! PS: If I were a manager, I would provide this template to the entire employee team. I can see how this system could actually reduce meeting time by getting to the point, and concluding the meeting when everyone is clear on what happens next.

[@NoTengoIlusiones]

As a hardcore excel user I love how this channel forks to other areas. Thank you Leila. Great fan.

[@bestbig2002]

She is so likeable and speaks so clear and understandable! Just nice to listen to her.

[@YvesAustin]

Thank you Leila for sharing this tip. Guilty as charged!! I have wandered all around the map from no note-taking, poor note-taking, furious note-taking, and somewhat decent note-taking, but never great note-taking!! I've always admired people who would have the ability to capture key take-aways in succinct terms regardless of whether they would take notes or not. I will give your method a try!

[@LeilaGharani]

Hope it will be helpful, Yves!

[@karhukivi]

Excellent as always, Leila, thank you! I will organise my note-taking along these lines instead of just writing them in a column as I usually do. Psychologists have known for a long time that writing notes in script (as opposed to block capitals) involves both sides of the brain and increases the likelihood of the idea becoming embedded in memory. I regularly see students using laptops to type their notes - OK, it keeps a neat copy but when asked they don't seem to remember the content. It seems as if the brain is too busy with the process of typing and is not moving the content into longer-term memory.

[@RL11111]

100%

[@michaeljoseph8554]

I would just try to focus on what’s effective. Explaining why something is not effective is not worth your time.

[@tiffanydrouin2622]

I do something similar except I write in a list format but leave a margin to the left and put abbreviated labels in the margin for what I had written down, or I color code it with highlighters. I know if I were to section it up like this I would run out of writing space in a section, usually questions and/or tasks. Margin labels/flags typically look like this: "M" usually stands for "me" when it's something I need to do, "Q" is question, "*" is an important point, "Q*" is an important question, if someone else or another's company's representative needs to follow up or be asked a question I'll use their initials or the company's initials, general notes I leave unlabeled. Color codes can vary by project/meeting.

[@marklatin2563]

Please share tips how to use and organize page. Table vs containers, to do s and reminder. If you have everything on page including notes, to do s etc etc then how should we best organize that singer page

[@dodgecarlincila879]

I'm always learning from you, Leila. Can't wait for Monday! I'm one of those that doesn't take notes and just rely on the email that sent out after meetings. Thanks for this :)

[@Alisa-utube]

Thanks! Very helpful.📝❗👍

[@LeilaGharani]

Thank you! Glad it was helpful!

[@vijayarjunwadkar]

Thank you Leila! I really appreciate your passion, enthusiasm and determination to bring knowledge to so many of us on a variety of subjects consistently and repeatedly! It's not easy to keep the audience interested and curious over long time, but you have achieved it and I am sure you will maintain it! All the very best! 😊👍

[@LeilaGharani]

Thank you so much, Vijay! I really appreciate your continued support.

[@d3vastatlon]

Another tip: using OneNote's recording feature will sync to what you wrote. So if you record the meeting while taking notes but can't exactly remember some details about something you wrote, just click the play button next to it to hear that part of the meeting!

[@Weirtoe]

Wow! Thanks!

[@jw_au]

For some reason this never seems to work for me… clearly an end user issue 😂

[@jpp7783]

Notability does the same thing.

[@invincible1437]

That’s what I was looking for just to mention the same thing that there should be recording as well but someone already mentioned here. Good job!

[@MauiXoXo]

I record in class ..It's smooth

[@moniqueb3432]

Oh the wishes of hindsight! You will help me tremendously be efficient. I studied social work which required detailed blow by blow notetaking. Now I have the strategy to move from the extreme to the productive.

[@flycow69]

Thank you for the tips and I honestly was able to read all your notes. I remember the old days when the words Shorthand and Steno were must have talents to be able to work as a C-Level assistant to report directly to the CEO. By the way I just became a sub thinking you’re great at what you do then when I checked they are 2.3 millions of us who think you’re doing a great job. Thanks for your generous content .

[@ardighorashy]

Thanks!

[@LeilaGharani]

Thank you! Glad the video was helpful.

[@paulm5441]

If the meeting is very long and you have pages and pages of notes to take, you can "unfold" the quadrant structure by writing a bullet-type list, but the items are prefixed with the category: G for general, Q for questions, M for me, O for others. Or something similar. Later you can quickly scan the list, circle the done items etc. But the method is very good and thank you so much for this video.

[@LeilaGharani]

Thanks for the tip, Paul!

[@yossibardosh]

תודה!

[@LeilaGharani]

Thanks!

[@chh8860]

At the 6:16 mark, " ... for example, you can use a tablet and write your notes by hand in OneNote ...". Exactly the suggestion I was going to make as well. I am a big OneNote fan. The search engine is terrific and tagging and linking are wonderful features to connect similar topics from different meetings. Also, to ability to email the meeting notes to other participants quickly is another excellent feature. You have given me an idea of creating 4 separate 'panels', i.e. Quadrants, on a single OneNote page, each labeled as you suggested. It will allow me to quickly make note of relevant items in the respective panel as the meeting progresses. Depending upon whether my notes are public (for distribution) or private (i.e. just for me), I might 'retype' my notes later, but 'pre-sorting' in the 'panels' should prove useful. Once again ... thank you ... thank you ... thank you ... 😍😍😍

[@LeilaGharani]

OneNote is amazing. Glad I could inspire you, Chris 😊

[@chh8860]

@@LeilaGharani More than you will ever know Leila ... you are a true gem.

[@GT-ho6co]

My thoughts were exactly the same. I love OneNote and was thinking about how to set up a template based on the quadrant described here.

[@andrewjamesbondoc1405]

1. Why onenote is fast only at first when few pages? 2) Why onenote suddenly search do not work correctly?

[@RiverCat999]

Thanks, Leila This is a great approach for information gathering. I used to record meetings whenever possible and then check against my notes and follow-up for clarification. Your approach is much more streamlined. Thanks very much.

[@lisacottrell7685]

Opening

[@fitbuddybiz7381]

Good morning Leila! Thank you so much for this tutorial. Your approach and experience with your contact totally resonated with me. I have had the same thing happen numerous times to me and I needed the pattern to cease! I am excited to try the tips learned today AND to check out the rest of your content. Thank you so much!

[@motorcycleman6898]

Thanks Leila. I will try this, but slightly adapted - will combine the To-Dos and have a separate quadrant for Decisions made.

[@LeilaGharani]

Excellent!

[@smaaahen]

The situation you described in this video is the story of my life and I’m so happy I just reached your video ! Thank you for sharing !!

[@kpurnawan]

Thanks for the secret tip Leila.. I used to take notes everything in a meeting, I believe this will be more concise and powerful for To Do lists and assigning tasks for my team.

[@ifoundu3406]

If someone is capable to write everything down that is a great skill which many can't do. You can always summarize/divide later because you have everything you need.

[@n1vca]

I am really impressed all the time ... I can take any video of yours with a random pick and you surprise me each time with a very practical and well distilled approach, great knowledge and what impresses me the most, there is always an element of total honesty towards yourself and your own struggles that makes it just so very relatable. Absolutely brilliant - I virtually bow in front of you. Best regards from another IT nerd in Munich, Germany.

[@LeilaGharani]

Wow, thank you so much! Servus 😊

[@samanvayasrivastava559]

Crisp and to the point .. loved it

[@evayaaasantewaa448]

Thank you for this! And as someone who takes meeting notes with pen and paper, I especially appreciate your last bit of advice. I just sent a link to this video to a couple of former co-workers who I am mentoring.

[@cmonster67]

Meetings should be like your videos; quick, concise, informative and action oriented. Thank you for your insights.

[@HeatherMajors]

Awesome video. I was doing a little of what this vide describes but not all 4 quadrants. This provided more ideas to level up. Thank you Leila and Teams for putting this together.

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad it was helpful, Heather!

[@Ethan-mkz]

Dear Leila, your channel is one the ones I would suggest to all my fellow team members and friends. great job.

[@fuzzylon]

Thanks for another great video. I find it very difficult not to write everything down and my writing is bad too - so I try to review my notes as soon as I can afterwards and annotate them with a different colour (green) - particularly writing clearly any words that I won't be able to figure out later on. I like the quadrant idea, but my meetings usually run to several pages of A5 so what I usually do is mark my actions with a star in the right margin, actions for others with a square in the right margin. General notes I write at the bottom or right of the page with a line drawn around them. Another tip - is to write down the names of the attendees on the page in advance if I can (or else while waiting for them to turn up ) and I write their initials - so during the meeting I only have to write their initials in my notes not their full names. I also tick their names off as they turn up so I have a record of who was there and who didn't show up and it helps me keep track of who is who.

[@kekp3791]

This video is super. Gold advices! I thought I was good at identifying the key points in a meeting, but apparently organizing the notes is the most important thing. Thank you Leila for this valuable practical tip from you! I will surely use it in my next appointment. 😀

[@AnwarHussainFaruqh]

Dear Leila , you are so greatly helpful, God bless you and your team / family ! The topics you choose are very practically helpful ! Thank you so much ✨✨🙏🙏😊😊🙏🙏🙏🙏 Anwar Faruqh, London, UK, Mother Earth🌎

[@juancarloshoyosp]

Muchas gracias, vi el video con subtitulos en español para entenderlo y me gusto el material, no conocia los cuadrantes para tomar notas... voy a probar! 👍👍👍

[@rextransformation7418]

Thanks, will try the Quadrant Method in the workshop (yes, I'm a machinist) whenever I've to learn a new machine.

[@annapenzer64]

Fabulous presentation- this method has really transformed my notes in meetings.

[@MargAbbottYou]

Wow, that's an eye-opener!! Thank you so much, gonna try that at my next choir & band meetings etc!!

[@redmantech8167]

What a super simple way to take structured notes. I’ll be trying this tomorrow!

[@LeilaGharani]

Great! Let us know if it was helpful.

[@robrayborn1349]

Thank you Leila. I really needed this one and plan on putting it into place immediately. No more lost notes or thoughts.

[@LeilaGharani]

Hope it helps, Rob! Let us know how it went.

[@vortega472]

What I like about MS Teams (and I know other meeting programs - that all participants are listed so you can go back) in my notes I also write Participants and keep their names written, I can go back for correct spelling. Also I now use Rocketbook - because I now know (thanks to you) I can now convert from written text to type, so I'm going to do that.

[@CTBoiseState22]

I have taken notes by hand for years...then I transfer the most essential information into another notebook (and still maintain digital docs for the team). It may seem like a lot, but I juggle multiple projects. Quite frankly, between this method and transferring emails to OneNote, I save time (plus a significant reduction in errors or potentially costly mistakes).

[@LeilaGharani]

👍

[@abdulsr.8075]

Thank God for studying to take notes at the college. Learned everything at that time and been doing it till now 😎

[@sherrycohen1824]

This makes so much sense. Do you have any ideas how to adapt this for middle school and high school students? I have a son with ADHD and dyslexia. Add to that the fact that he doesn't like schoolwork and homework. Between all these problems, he doesn't do well in school. That said, he wants to be an engineer or coder, so I need to help him find a way to understand and retain things he learns. I've made math cheat sheets on Excel to help him remember how to divide fractions, or whatever, in simplest terms and steps so he doesn't feel overwhelmed. I'd appreciate any suggestions you may have.

[@ikennambonu3157]

Very helpful. I’m adopting this method for all my meetings from now on

[@kroyle5328]

Great video really helpful. I needed a way to make better notes. I will go away and try this method and not the old school note taking everything. Thanks.

[@sharadsrivastava1043]

Thanks for sharing these tips. Manually writing also helps in editing, highlighting imp points, drawing shapes, connectors etc. , so I prefer taking notes on paper in my meetings. Please keep sharing videos on such day to day topics. Thanks

[@alexcampion8529]

I find using a 4 coluur pen and assigning the same catergories as you discussed to a different colour also works well, obviously this works best on lined paper, and I leave spaces under the questions for the answer.

[@jennyvinyl85]

Excellent! You can also use the quadrants as criteria to determine (1) Necessity: ¿is the meeting truly necessary? (2) Attendees: ¿who really needs to participate? And (3) Duration: considering the discussion points ¿how much time we anticipate for the meeting?

[@notesfromleisa-land]

I would add, that good meeting planning coupled with well run leadership/participation creates the structure of outlining the objective, codifying the feedback from participants informing the decision making, do the 'discuss, debate, decide' stuff, and identifying next steps, who will do and when they will report back.

[@rodneyspanish]

One word: Amazing! Thank you for sharing this awesome technique!

[@AndyBhopal]

Hi Leila, Your videos are always a treat to watch. Just my two cents: I tend to be in meetings with a large number of people, quite often via Teams or other virtual channels. I add the location, date, attendees and Decision items in separate sections. I can type without seeing the keyboard, hence do not have to worry about speed. I always tell my team members to learn typing so that the visual barrier of the laptop does not pose a problem. Trust this helps you too!

[@LeilaGharani]

Many thanks for your feedback!

[@jego207]

This is great! I never had a system before, just a series of checklists.

[@gennarocimmino]

You did really well. Congratulations. Absolutely interesting these tips of yours. Thank you.

[@MrBradleykeith]

Well the quadrant method is what I use, but on two open pages of an A4 book, each page divided into two. And yes, note taking by hand enforces memory retention.

[@DOJ77]

Great video and thank you for sharing. I didn’t understand what one note was for.

[@louisd95714]

Thanks you for the note taking suggestions. I was waiting for you to mention OneNote. I find it to be an excellent note taker.

[@awberyart5796]

I love your videos! I stumbled upon you by accident but love your content. Keep the great advice coming.

[@gwilson87]

I've struggled with this forever, will definitely give your method a try!!

[@LeilaGharani]

I hope it will help, Jake!

[@drgeekay]

Leila - as always - with an excellent, useful, and crystal-clear video that will help many of us! Thank you! 🙏🙏

[@sarahwilcox4044]

Never come across this method before, looks really helpful - thank you! :) I'll give it a go.

[@chaskinsnc]

Thank You! I struggle with messy and un organized notes. I will give this method a try

[@LeilaGharani]

Great! Let us know if it works for you.

[@RightPhalanges]

❤ the tips. I already use the handwriting part as I agree that it helps me to retain the info. ❤the quadrant! Going to start doing this!

[@mohdotnet]

Best advice ever for meetings . Thank you for sharing this.

[@LeilaGharani]

Our pleasure!

[@lorenakademar5267]

I've never heard about this method..i'll try to put in practice...thank you for the advice!

[@LeilaGharani]

You're so welcome! Hope it will be helpful.

[@jjpk80]

Golden words as always. I'll start applying them right away!!!

[@saurabhpathak3527]

Thank you ma'am for sharing such a nice systematic trick to take notes fastly. I'm facing same problem like you... So thanks again

[@ahmadkaddoura7060]

thank Leila for this important video 👍🏻I liked the Quadrant method..it's really an ultimate note taking tip

[@bird271828]

Great tips Leila. I loved the "me, alvin, glasses, blue shirt". Thank you for sharing 👏👏👏👏😍

[@StephanieWReed]

What a great idea, the 4 quadrants. I will implement it for my next meetings. Thanks!

[@LeilaGharani]

Great! Share your experience with us.

[@MalinaC]

Awesome tips! Thank you Leila!❤

[@JAAP2101]

This video saved my life. Ok , I'm exaggerated but it is really helpful. Thanks Leila, the best.❤

[@LeilaGharani]

I'm so glad, Alejandro!

[@wickedbird1538]

😮😮6:05 I agree. I can type without even knowing what I am typing. But I remember thing I write by hand. (Even on one note, lol)

[@TheCankersore]

Very insightful and sensible suggestions. Thank you!

[@ramonaneyrinck2292]

Wow! I’m exactly like you! I really struggle to manage in person paper notes and wanting to use digital. I really need to learn to use some of this technology. I had no idea that feature about one note.

[@YogeshSharma-ui7xx]

Leila you rocks for bring in loads of present trend skills

[@luc-antoinemarcoux7561]

Very useful insights on how to take down good notes. Thank you!

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@ZanyZoomers]

Really helpful. I love taking notes, lots of them! I struggled to go paperless but i now use my ipad to take notes and use Apple Pencil so it feels like im writing in the old fashioned way.

[@LeilaGharani]

I feel the same way 😊

[@ibrahimabellabah3042]

Thanks for the golden ticket, I'm going to apply it for my next meeting.

[@pegazuz1977]

Awesome tip. Have been struggling wiht meeting notes for decades. Will try this out!

[@LeilaGharani]

Hope it will be helpful, Jakob!

[@ianpatrick23]

Such great techniques for notetaking. Thanks!

[@erikaemedinaguerrero7858]

I struggle every single mmeting on how to take notes. I have try different ways but still in search of something really effective. I will try these suggestions and come by to comment how it went. Thanks for the tip!

[@draskteachingleaf4428]

I am an Academician ... always taking notes in a sequence and find it trouble....this method is so good and following immediately for better result

[@nelsonmotivation]

Quadrant Method - The way to go. Thanks for this video Leila. ❤

[@LeilaGharani]

My pleasure, Nelson!

[@jamesfreedman2846]

Thanks. Amazing quadrants seems like great idea. I'll try it.

[@linh918]

Great tips, thank you Leila 😊

[@ckelly0811]

this is a game changer for me! Thank you.

[@gauravpanse9171]

Thanks Leila. This is super useful.

[@bhushankoli8593]

Simple but very effective, thanks for sharing and making note taking this easy 👍👍

[@LeilaGharani]

My pleasure 😊

[@TimelessTunesRewind]

How do you adjust the image containers size without messing with the image. The containers always come in to big around images and when I try to move the extra space out, it shinks the image?

[@denisquenneville8032]

Thank you for the amazing suggestion! I will try this next week!

[@LeilaGharani]

You're so welcome!

[@AbouAli01006300091]

Brilliant and just on time - as always very well relevant video to a real need 🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad it was helpful!