Why We Take Notes and Write Down Goals
This week we are going to talk about note-taking and writing down your goals, why it is important to you, and the benefit of investing in these seemingly mundane activities.
Before I get into note-taking, I want to touch on another subject. That would be collecting. People collect all kinds of things, from exotic and expensive to simple and cheap. I collect things as well. I collect books, I collect quotes from famous or successful people, and I collect web posts or articles from the internet, clippings from newspapers or magazines (yes, I still read these!) that reinforce the things I am teaching you in this course. Yes, people have told me that I might be a little anal or OCD, but you know what? I’ve gone back time and time again to those sources for reference in my quest to keep learning. I like to learn new things and I spend time daily reading, studying, and learning from different sources. Typically, learning means not making the same mistakes repeatedly or optimizing a task or decision. This leads me to two quotes I have collected and saved that I would like to share with you. The first was recorded in 1905 and credited to Spanish American author George Santayana who stated, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The second, and maybe more important is credited to Alfred Einstein. It goes like this, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
We all want an experience
Besides the items I just mentioned, I like to collect experiences. The term “experience” is all the rage now and we hear a lot about how people want to “experience” life. This often means giving up “things” such as owning a home or car, or other material possessions. Think about this for a minute. In 2024, travel has now exceeded 2019 levels, before the pandemic, which means people are experiencing new places, people, and cultures. What a wonderful thing to do. And everywhere you go, someone or some app is asking “How was your experience?”. Heck, just last week I purchased a propane bottle at Lowe’s, and they sent me an email wanting to know about my experience. The week before I purchased some wood screws and got the same email. Really? When I make an electronic payment from my bank, I’m offered an opportunity to tell a robot how my experience was. Give me a break. Probably everyone collects something, and that something typically revolves around our passion. We all have a passion in life, whether we like to admit it or not. It may be sports, cars, exercise, eating, work, play, or travel. What is your passion? If someone were to look at your collection, whatever it may be, what would they think about you?
A passion for learning
My passion is learning. It was not that way when I was a child in school, I barely got through my first 12 years of formal education. I followed this poor performance with two years at a local community college where the standard grades were “C” and “D”. After these mediocre performances, when I made the decision that I was not going to settle for surviving in life, that I was going to thrive, well, then I lit the afterburners!. No longer were “Cs” acceptable, the only acceptable grade was an “A”. I set a goal for myself to graduate with my bachelor’s degree Summa Cum Laude, with highest honors. I could not quite make it, instead graduating Magna Cum Laude, with high honors, and a 3.87 grade point average, missing it by .01 point. When I chose to pursue my master’s degree, I set a goal of all “As”. I didn’t quite make that either, but I was very close.
So, to live my passion, I read everything I can get my hands on, and I collect things that contribute to my passion and joy for learning. You see, and this is an important point, as you commit yourself to learning and growing, you will find that your success will follow. Ponder this question for a minute: How do you spend your free time? When you do the things you enjoy, do they contribute to achieving your dreams and living your best life? You know where I am going here, don’t you? Let me just ask if spending time in front of an electronic screen helps you obtain or achieve the things in life you want. If the answer is no, then I might suggest you have something to ponder this week. Would you agree?
Ok, back to note-taking. When you were in school, did you take notes? When you are in a meeting at work, do you take notes? When you attend church, do you take notes on the sermon? If you attend a seminar or lecture, do you take notes? Question: Why or why not? Before you proceed, take a minute and think about the answer to that question. If you are a note-taker, you already understand the value of it. If you are not, then please consider if taking notes, and referring back to them as needed, would be something you might want to do.
The purpose of effective note taking
Note-taking, and I mean effective note-taking, makes you more productive by helping you remember key facts that you can reference later. Studies have shown that taking notes by hand is more effective in helping you remember than taking them electronically. I know this to be true in my own life as I have always taken hand-written notes and they were a tremendous help when I attend formal school or other training. What is effective note-taking? Well, simply it’s being able to determine what key points are and summarizing those key points as you listen to the speaker. It’s an art, a learned habit. For some reason, I have always been good at note-taking and my notes helped me do well on tests and remember important material I wanted to reference later. Some people will use markers or different color pens to color code different topics. While I admit to highlighting books I read and making margin notes, I’ve never color-coded notes, but I can see where it may be helpful. After a class or lecture, I typically would go back and review my notes and edit them while the material is still fresh in my mind. If you are part of a study group or other group, having well-composed notes will ensure you are a contributing member. Likewise, if others take good notes, it can help you as well.
Let me tell you what this looks like for me. When I was working, every day I would print my calendar from Microsoft Outlook. Ideally, I printed it the evening before I went home in case I had an early meeting the next day. My daily meetings and appointments were on the left side and the right side was blank. Throughout the day, I would take notes on the right side. If I needed more space, I would use the back. I would then file these notes in case I needed them later. Some of my colleagues would use a spiral notebook and they just stacked the old ones on the new ones. While I support either method, there are two potential problems I want to make you aware of. One is that you can collect a lot of paper that can become so much more clutter. If you are at work, the second potential problem can concern classified or sensitive information and document retention issues. If you have to be concerned about these things, just make sure you understand them.
How we record thoughts we have throughout the day
I recently read a book called How to Write Short by Roy Clark. Mr. Clark advocates that as a writer, one should keep a daybook to make lists, record ideas, or otherwise capture thoughts that come to you during the day so you don’t forget them. Some self-help and personal improvement experts recommend always keeping a notebook on your nightstand to record thoughts as they come up. Of course, in today’s world, there are electronic means to do this. The point is that important thoughts come to you throughout your day and unless you record them, they probably won’t be acted upon. Screech…That’s a pretty profound statement and an important point that is worth repeating: Unless you write important thoughts down as they happen, you probably won’t remember them and thus won’t act on them. That’s an important takeaway for you. Moving on, since I no longer go to work every day (remember I said I hate the word retirement?) I keep a grocery list on the counter, a To-Do list on my desk and I send myself emails when thoughts come that I want to act upon later. It’s what works for me.
When you take the course, I will be encouraging you to take notes so that you will get more out of the class and have a lifetime record of what you learn to refer to later. If you want to learn how to take better notes, consider the book “The Art of Note Taking” by Thinknetic (Note 1).
All this discussion about collecting, experiences, passion, and note-taking leads us up to the crux of what I want to teach you today and it is a summary of where we have been going for the past six weeks. We all have dreams and want to live our best lives. To increase the likelihood that we can be successful in that, we must think and act in ways that help us and then take intentional actions that will ensure we get there. I’ve mentioned a few of these intentional actions previously and now offer another, very important intentional action I would like you to take. That is to write your goals down.
The very small percentage of people who write and achieve goals
We will be getting more into goal setting as time goes by, but I want to plant this seed in your mind today. I could bore you with statistics on this but suffice it to say that I already know that only about 3% of the population even writes down what they want to achieve and a still smaller percentage of those 3% achieve their goals. If you want to do more of your own research on this topic, just Google “Why is writing down goals important for reaching a goal” and scroll through the 233 million hits you get. You will quickly conclude that if you start by writing down your goals, take intentional actions, and indeed live in a particular manner, your chances of achieving your dreams and living your best life are almost assured. We’ve all been around people who are angry or unhappy because they don’t do or have what they want. I don’t want that to be you.
We are getting into the meat of what you need to do to achieve your dreams and live your best life and there is a lot more to come. Today we discussed the importance of collecting materials that support your dream achievement, ensuring your experiences are in support of those dreams, and methods such as note-taking and authoring written goals can help you get where you want to go. That’s all for this week!
What’s in it for Me
We’ve been discussing how your habits and actions either support or detract from your achieving your dreams and living your best life. This is what you want to do, right? Ponder today’s message regarding what you collect, how you spend your time and experiences, why you should be taking notes, and the value of handwriting your dreams (goals) in helping you reach them. Remember the statistics on writing and not writing your goals down. This is the key formula for increasing your likelihood of success.
Call to Action
Sign up for the next available course, either online, virtual, or in person. Ensure you are signed up for the email list. Forward this email to your friends and family. If you are not a note-taker, consider how you can become one and what the value is for you. If necessary, purchase a book or other materials that help you. Use a daybook or otherwise have a method to record important thoughts as they occur. Research why having written goals is important in achieving them and how unlikely it is to achieve goals or dreams that have not been documented.
Recommended Resources
If you need help with learning how to take notes, consider purchasing the book “The Art of Note Taking” (Note 1). Also, as we continue to fill our minds with knowledge that is in support of our dream achievement, purchase and read the book The Top 2%, What it Takes to Reach the Top in your Profession by Earl Nightingale and Lloyd Conant (Note 2). Visit https://www.nightingale.com/ to see a wealth of resources available to help you on your journey.
Up Next
What’s in it for me?
Notes
Please note that as an Amazon Affiliate, I may earn a small commission on the sale of any of these recommended resources.
The Art of Notetaking by Thinknetic: https://amzn.to/3Y2WBUc
The Top 2%, What it Takes to Reach the Top in Your Profession by Earl Nightengale: https://www.nightingale.com/