Write it Down. Always.
Young leaders consistently ask me: “what’s one practical piece of advice for being a leader who gets things done?” A leader that is trustworthy and reliable. The kind of leader when you ask them to get something done, you have complete confidence that it will happen.
My answer is always the same: Write It Down. Always. What do I mean?
1. never show up to a meeting without a pen and a notebook. My preference is a sharpie and a moleskine notebook. But doesn’t matter whether it’s a legal pad or a Red Big Chief pencil, Or your iphone or laptop. ALWAYS show up to a meeting ready to record thoughts, ideas, takeaways, and action items. I tell my team this all the time, whether we are having a group meeting or individual meetings.
2. carry a pen and notebook with you wherever you go. If you have a thought, write it down. Remember a task that needs to be completed while in your office, capture it in an email or in a running to do list on your desktop or in Evernote. In the car?…. capture it on your iphone audio memo or on a dictation machine. But always make sure it is captured somewhere. Always.
3. One of the most important, if not THE most important person in the room during a brainstorming or creative session is the notetaker. And if you don’t have a notetaker for these meetings, find one. Don’t have another meeting without one. It has to be someone who is really good at listening, filtering, and capturing. It CAN’T be someone who is actively engaged in the creative or brainstorming elements.
By doing these things, it frees you up to have energy to be creative, think outside the box, dream, and ultimately keep a running account of what items are on your list to get done. I’ll share my system for getting things done, especially as it relates to writing items down, in a future post.
Hey man, that is good stuff and you are absolutely right! One day when we get to heaven, I’ll have time to tell you all the stuff I’ve learned from you!
[...] first link for this week is to some valuable advice from Brad Lomenick titled Write it Down, always. I could not agree more with this. If I could provide one piece of productivity advice, this is [...]
Good stuff! Read a book by John Maxwell a few years back, Thinking for a Change. Loved it! Until then I never thought about capturing my ideas as they come. I came up with ideas on a ‘need be’ basis and really never carved out time in my schedule to mull anything over. Now that I’ve begun to do that, it’s made a world of difference, because the ideas have time to be developed. The worst is when you’ve mastered the art of being creative at the last minute, because no matter what you come up with, and no matter how creative, it isn’t quite what it could it be. I carry my little yellow and red polka-dot notebook that has a big apple smack dab in the middle everywhere I go, and I have a digital recorder for road-trips…LOL! Thanks for sharing!
It’s a good reminder to know I’m on the right track. I write down everything. My lists and such are crazy. I’m with you… thinking about something and keeping it at the front of your mind is often the best way to get it done, and writing it down is, at least for me, the first step in keeping it on my mind.
-Marshall Jones Jr.
I was lucky enough to have my father teach me your first point on showing up to meetings with something to write on when I was 15. That is a habit I keep to this day. I get so frustrated when someone shows up for a conversation / meeting in a work setting and they have nothing. No paper, no pen. Really sends the wrong message. I always have a pen in my pocket and some note card to capture thoughts on.