I am a voracious notetaker and a few months ago I started tweaking my notetaking system. The problem was I was paying more attention to writing my notes than the people in the the meeting. It started by assigning symbols like @ or $ to words I use frequently. Over time it grew so i had a set of symbols for objects like people or places, symbols for actions or ideas and symbols for numbers.

Then I realized by combining two of the symbols I could succinctly convey meaning. So I developed some rules. I even gave it a name: Two Talk.

I found it helped me take meeting notes at work without losing attention, it helped me capture my action items quickly, it made my bullet journal even more succinct and it was a great way for me to brain dump.

Instead of writing "Need to follow up with ACE about the budget issue next week. This is important." I just put "ACE <~ %# -# :> !#""

If you are curious, everything is here: www.twotalk.org.

I’d love to hear your feedback.