Taking Note of What We Need to Remember

I was never very good at remembering things.

Oh, I could memorize some things if it was for a test. Heck, for a sixth-grade contest to memorize The Gettysburg Address, I did it in a weekend. And l still came in second place. I couldn’t recite it a week later.

That’s like Mayor Shinn in the movie The Music Man who never got beyond “Four score,” probably because that’s all he remembered. 

I don’t know if anyone memorizes long narratives like that anymore. People used to impress others by reciting poetry. To me there never seemed much point to it, especially as I age and find that it’s getting harder to remember why I walked into the next room.

There is, however, information we need to keep track of for later reference, information that’s important but not worth memorizing. We call them notes.

Yes, we write notes, lots of notes, and for different needs. They include shopping lists, to-do lists, ideas for remodeling a room, who to invite to a party, reminders, instructions, warnings – you name it. Your fridge is probably full of Post-it Notes – until the glue fails.

You may have a cork board with notes pinned to it. If you have kids, you have strategically placed notes all over your house – the garage (“Put tools back where they go.”), utility room (“Do not turn any knobs!”), garage (“Turn off lights before leaving.”), laundry (“Clean the dryer lint trap EVERY load!”), bathroom (“Hang your towel up.”) and bedroom (“Clean your room every week.”).

A lot of us take “mental notes” so we don’t need to write them down. In school I realized that I’m pretty weak at taking mental notes, so I learned to write things down. It made me pay attention more and I did better, achieving a level just respectable enough to keep my folks satisfied.

What really helped me in college was my journalism education. Probably the main skill I learned there was how to take notes, which is key to interviewing someone for a news story. There wasn’t a course in note taking, though. We were expected to learn that on our own.

We all know that taking notes takes time and concentration. It’s work. We also know, or should know, that they are critical in our daily lives. They also help make us accountable. Who are you more likely to trust – someone who tells you what they remember or someone who tells you what they have written down?

Some people write notes on paper. I worked with a reporter once who took notes in shorthand. You can record notes. In the movie Night Shift, Michael Keaton carried a portable tape recorder so he could record the many ideas he came up with such as “Idea to eliminate garbage – edible paper.”

I can bring up the notes app on my phone in one swipe across the screen. So, it’s always available any time I need to write down something to refer to later. I have about 100 notes on my phone. With practice on the tiny keyboard, you can get good at it. It’s easier than trying to find note paper and a pen that works.

I’ve learned to never leave the house without my phone and any relevant handwritten lists. That’s so I don’t have to call Catherine later to remind me what I was supposed to buy. This avoids the “You had one job!” argument.

I’m not as good at taking notes as I once was, mostly because I don’t need to anymore. Age has diminished that skill as well as remembering where I put some handwritten notes. Like the note on how to reset the time on that old digital clock. 

My handwriting has also been deteriorating as I age. So, many notes I write on paper are decipherable only by me. Kind of like my own personal encryption. Notes I want others to actually read require focused penmanship in short, stern statements such as “Wipe your feet!”

Catherine is very accomplished at note taking. She writes down everything when she deals with important information. She developed this skill as an attorney, a profession in which details hold high import. She takes notes when talking with customer service personnel on the phone, even asking them their names and intentionally making them aware that she is writing everything down. And if she’s put on hold for too long, the whole conversation moves to a scary new level. I leave the room.

She takes mental notes when she and I discuss something. That way she can remember whatever she wants and claim it’s true.

Sometimes people go a bit overboard when taking notes. One guy I know included the weather conditions whenever he documented an oil change on his motorcycle.

We aren’t like Star Trek’s android character Data, who remembers every fact he’s exposed to. He has unlimited mental note taking capacity. Then there’s Uncle Billy from the movie It’s a Wonderful Life who tied a string around a finger so he would remember he had to do something. He just needed to remember what “something” was.

We certainly don’t need to remember everything and that’s a good thing. There’s a lot in our life experiences best forgotten.

But if you ask yourself, “Should I be writing this down?”, maybe you should be.