Right way to note down necessary information during online meetings ?

[Junilu Lacar]

Satyaprakash Joshii wrote:This one seems the most important step for me. I will focus and start doing this.

The mental shift you need to make is accepting the fact that software development is a journey of discovery. As you learn and discover new things, new questions will come up that you could not have predicted before. Learn to be OK with this. It's an iterative process and as such, you can't just get everything right at one go. Continuous frequent feedback as you iterate through the learning process is necessary to get things right. It's not about getting things right the first time, it's about getting it right in the end.

[Satyaprakash Joshii]

Also, I need to understand that communication is a lot synchronous then just being asynchronous.

The reasons I feel are multiple and I need to change these :

1) Instead of feeling embarassement that I did not understand immediately what was just said, I like to analyse offline by taking my sweet time to think and then often end up understanding it.

But I need to change this.

2) Analyzing by taking my sweet time later on is sometimes easier than immediately being able to understand.

I need to start putting effort in understanding things then and there itself and asking questions immediately.

3) During the meeting sometimes the attention goes away.

I need to start being always attentive.

4) Also sometimes I feel lazy to analyse and understand then and there itself and delay it.

I need to push myself to understand things then and there itself instead of delaying it.

I will put effort and change my mindset.

[Satyaprakash Joshii]

Les Morgan wrote:
Don't be afraid to ask questions if you miss something.

Yes, that's the right thing to do. But, sometimes the questions come to mind late.

[Satyaprakash Joshii]

Junilu Lacar wrote: Sometimes to avoid looking stupid, you have to risk being honest and less than perfect (because none of us are perfect, of course).

Yes. That's true.

[Satyaprakash Joshii]

I have started implementing it from today.

When in the adhoc meeting it was said to do this and that and this way and that way, I said my understanding is this (based on what I could remember from what was told to me by him few seconds back). After this also I note this understanding as I myself may forget.

For this I am having to push myself to understand/clarify synchronously (then and there itself ) instead of asynchronous (later taking sweet time to analyze and understand ).

Also, I realized that procastination is one of my bad habbits. I need to push myself to analyse/clarify things now itself.

[Satyaprakash Joshii]

Although the post was for software development, for me the advice given in this forum is useful in everyday life too.

I was having this bad habbit of hearing the other person and not confirming my understanding then and there itself (in case of something which I do not understand ), and used to think I will analyse this later on in my sweet time and understand. This is not limited to office but life too.I realized you can't be in a fully asynhronous communication mode in life.

Basically, I became from asynchronous to synchrous in life after this thread. I am very thankful to Junilu and others for helping me change my habbit.

[Satyaprakash Joshii]

Junilu Lacar wrote:
You: "Ok, this what I understood... explain in your own words what you think the other person said"

Have tried to implement this and it is definitely effective.

One way I initially tried is to listen to what the other person said and explain in my own words.

Later I felt a better way is to while listening write some rough points on a notebook using pen about what other person said and then use those short handwritten notes to explain in own words what he said.

Now, I felt that an even better way is to keep one small notepad open on your laptop, and type some very short notes while the other person is speaking, and then use it to explain in own words what he said.

Between the second the third approach the difference I have seen is that the third approach enables a more cleaner thought process than the second in my case.

[Campbell Ritchie]

Please don't edit old posts which have been replied to; that will cause confusion about what people did and hdidn't read at the time. Please post the changes as a new post.