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Funny how some of the best habits start out as laziness. I started writing quick-and-dirty notes to myself after consulting calls so I wouldn't have to maintain situation awareness between calls....
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... Then I started putting them into follow-up emails to clients rather than offline docs in lieu of deliverables, and whaddya know, clients appreciated the quick-and-dirty notes as much as the live calls, and more than delayed polished and formal "output"...
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Now that's pretty much ALL I do. Live calls, email notes. That's it. And that's all most clients actually want. Everything else is premium mediocre extras that don't actually add value, if they're read at all.
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I briefly did a misguided thing out of anxiety that everything was too ephemeral: make review materials like decks/spreadsheets/docs. Way too much overkill. Then I went the other extreme and did no follow through. Quickly lost the plot and it showed. Emails = sweet spot.
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I can pretty much reconstruct the entire history of a consulting relationship, some going back 8 years, simply by reviewing all the post-call notes emails. Not exactly eidetic memory, but as close as I need it to be. I need to do more systematic game tape reviews though.
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Which is not to say it's easy of course. Simple but not easy. Takes a lot of practice to get good at summarizing the gist of a live conversation in written form that's both useful for recall, and distills the highlights/insights etc.
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Also don't take this too literally as some sort of minimalist zen logistics model... I do produce other forms of working collateral when they actually make sense. I've made my share of decks and spreadsheet models too.
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I only take very sparse notes while talking, just key words and phrases/refs. The rest I reconstruct from memory after the call. Taking copious notes means you're not actually engaging in the conversation.
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Yes absolutely. I've started doing what describes too, jotting down anything that comes to mind after the call, rather than trying to maintain notes continuously during the call. Results in much more succinct, useful notes
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