Note Studio
Using Note Studio for conversation logs
I have recently been using Note Studio to manage my conversation logs. It's simple - I'm managing a number of different things
at the same time, and each one is managed through conversations. Note Studio is proving to be a very useful tool for keeping
the conversation logs, as well as organising everything about my conversations.
For each conversation, I want to know:
- who said what, when
- where was the conversation left - what is to be done next
Example
To see how this works, lets look at some of my projects. I have heaps of work projects, but lets look to the home front, because
these are usually managed much less formally, so Note Studio makes the biggest difference.
I'm busy, so these projects are all being carried out by other people. I want to manage them with as little work as possible.
So I set up a different page for some of these conversations:
*Current Projects*
[Tax return]
[Tiling floor]
[Garden]
[Property management]
In this article I will only cover how I use Note Studio to log my conversations about Property management, but the same principals
apply to all my projects.
I use the Property management page to cover our rental property. On average, I talk to the property manager every week. I'm sitting at work when the Property
Manager rings. He starts telling me about a problem with the carpet in one of the rooms. While he's telling me, I switch to
Note Studio and go into Property Management.
I go to the end of the page, type:
___
*
then hit F5, to insert a timestamp. I type another '*' and now I'm ready to go. I've made a horizontal line, with a bold timestamp. Under here I'm going to make any notes about
this conversation. I make some notes during the call, and afterwards I make some more. When I'm done, my entry looks like
this:
On a separate matter, later in the week I see we haven't received as much rent as I was expecting (this property is becoming
a problem, but never mind). So I ring the property manager again. This results in the following entry:
OK, now I have a problem. This page is not working. There are some problems:
- after using it for months, the page is getting long, which makes it less useful. It is getting hard to find the logs for the relevant conversations.
- I now have a couple of completely separate conversations intertwined on the same page, making it hard to manage.
It's time to reorganise this page.
There are a number of ways I can set it up. The way I'm choosing to do it is partly chronological and partly by conversation
thread. Now my Property Management page looks like this:
The only things I have to worry about are the Open Conversations. These are topics which haven't been completely resolved. It reminds me that the council still has a problem with the shed
my tenant built without any approval. What is the next action I need to take? I'd have to go into that topic to see. It's
been an open conversation for too long. We need some closure. When it is closed I will move it to Closed Conversations.
Apart from showing me that this property seems to be a maintenance nightmare, there are some very useful reasons for having
such a log. In May 2004, I get a phone call from the property manager:
"The council is about to fine you, because you still haven't fixed the pool fence".
"Hang on", I can say, "I spoke to a Greg Smith at the council on December 14 last year, and he assured me that as long as we fixed the gate latch, that was all that was
needed. And on December 23, I phoned Greg again telling him this had been done. He said they would inspect it and I've never
heard from them again. Have they done the inspection?". I may have remembered this if I had not been using Note Studio to
manage my conversation logs, but would I have been as sure, and know all the details so accurately?
Advantages
There are a lot of advantages to having such rigorous notes. The first is that I am confident of who said what, when. Maybe
the council have a record of these conversations. I doubt it, but even if they do, they certainly can't recall the information
as quickly as I can with Note Studio. I am able to speak about the issue with good authority. I'm not talking about using
my notes to dominate people, but it's good to have clear, confident recall.
I've also found people believe what I say more easily. If I have such a good record of the time and date we spoke, wouldn't
my notes about what we discussed be just as accurate?
I've also had people look over my shoulder in awe while I'm using Note Studio to browse this conversaton notebook. The details
I am able to retreive, and the speed I can retrieve it with, is not naturally available to people.
Less things are likely to slip through the gaps, using such a system. I find it takes a minute or two at the end of each notable conversation, to make the required notes. And occasionally, ten minutes of reorganisation. I am not using this system for
everything yet - I regularly decide something is not worth making a note of, and it sometimes catches me out. It's hard to
predict which notes are going to be useful in future, which is why I'm still learning:
- the more things I note, the better
- I need the notes to be very lightweight, or I won't bother to make them.
- Its more important to log the conversation, than it is to worry about getting the structure perfect. I can always re-arrange my notes later if the need arises.
Limitations
There's a limitation I haven't really figured out how to handle yet. If you look at the note I made regarding rent: He is looking into it and will call me back by Friday.
How am I going to manage this? I won't see that note until I next review that conversation, and by then, Friday could have
come and gone. There is no reminder system.
My best solution so far is to use an external calendar system, like Outlook or Palm Desktop, to put any such items in. But
this is a separate step, which I might forget or not bother to do. It would also be good if when the reminder went off, it
would bring up Note Studio and jump to the appropriate page. dogMelon is continually improving Note Studio though, so maybe
this will be available in a future version of Note Studio.
Conclusion
Of course, if you are on a committee, or at your work, you probably already have some good systems for your meetings. These
systems might even be quite formal, involving the taking of minutes. This conversation logger does not replace such systems.
But if I look at all of the things I'm managing, most are not formally managed. It's for these informal projects that the conversation manager has made the biggest difference. Note Studio works for me, because I get the right
mix of simplicity and flexibility for my needs.
Ant Wiese ant@dogmelon.com.au 5/05/2004 9:24:14 AM