We’ve discussed before how focus is not just important, but it’s the golden gift for whomever you’re meeting with, or for whatever you’re working on.
There is one implementation of this that is so powerful it’s worthy of a separate chapter, all on its own: going to meetings with only a pen and paper to take notes. No computer.
This sounds either too-old-fashioned or too-hipster, but there are a few reasons why. For important meetings, paper is really powerful and thus the hipster way is the way to go.
First, it is a powerful symbolic message that you’re so focused on the person and the content of the meeting, that you won’t even have technology around to possibly distract you. It is a strong message about how important that meeting is to you—even if it isn’t.
Secondly, it is common knowledge that writing something down by hand, on paper, helps you remember it more. The person you’re meeting with will probably know that. So, he will likely appreciate that you’re making the effort to work in a way that will make you likely internalize and remember the information more.
Third, so few people do this (hipsters aside), that it will also help you achieve another recommendation from an earlier chapter, you become more memorable. Many times, I’ve taken out my fancy notebook to write in meetings and the other people comment on it. It stands out. If you act like everyone else, you’ll be valued like everyone else, and remembered like everyone else—which is, barely at all.
There are three ways to do this even better. You can do the same even for unimportant meetings. You’re effectively treating the other side like they’re more important than they are, which is always recognized at least subconsciously and usually appreciated (by all other than the extremely egotistical.) You can have an organized notebook, which shows (physically) that you’re on top of things as well. Best of all, you can transcribe your written notes digitally, which powerfully confirms that you spend time actively thinking through and working on the material of the meetings afterward.
