At the end of a productive span of time, such as a team meeting or reading an article, spending a few minutes processing what happened can make the time investment 10x more valuable.
For example, after I read a book or an impactful article, I spend some time to pull out the highlights so I can make use of them later. Sometimes I put pieces in to Anki to memorize, some I share with my team, and most all of them end up in Roam Research for later use (like I show with books here).
After a church service, I have a pretty solid process that I go through to convert those quick notes into something that will bring ongoing value to my system (this quick video shows more).
For meetings, it can matter even more. If it’s a proper business meeting, I hope you have a good process for that already. Generally someone is assigned to take notes, and every meeting should end with clear takeaways for every attendee.
Casual Meetings
But what about more casual meetings? I was on a recent call with some of my altMBA friends, and I noticed that a lot of great resources were being shared. I scribbled some quick notes about them as we went, and then shared them with the group after the call. It wasn’t a big deal, but taking the time to process them made the value of those suggestions much higher.
Poems
Someone shared The Enkindled Spring and one from Lao Tzu, both of which I saved in Roam and tagged with their names. Thanks to how Roam magically ties things together, I was able to connect the Lao Tzu poem to some previous things I’d written such as this post. I love those kinds of connections.
Books
Someone mentioned the book “The Pursuit of Endurance“, which I added to my “to-read” list, and I shared “Seeking Wisdom“, which I’m found great value from as I worked through it.
Podcasts
Someone mentioned “The Long and The Short Of It” podcast, which I’ve now subscribed to, and it’s fantastic.
Websites
One of the men on the call is going to literally be hiking around the world, so I made sure to grab his website so I can follow his journey.
Kick back or lean in?
I could have just kicked back and enjoyed the call. The people I’ve met through the altMBA are fascinating, and that would have been a fine use of my time. However, by jotting down a few quick notes while we talked, and then spending 20 minutes after the call to sort through everything, I’ve generated a ton more value that will be with me for quite some time.
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