Pen and Paper

Literacy, Literally

This week, I was privileged enough to go on-site with a new client, in a conference room with nearly a dozen people. I had my laptop in a bag, as did everyone, and wasn't presenting; this was more of a support role, for, well, everyone in the room. It's kind of where my role lives.

Anyway, I pulled out my bound notebook and pen, and the laptop never left my bag. Everyone else in the room either had a screen open, or computer plus notepad, and I'll be honest with you... it made me self-conscious. For a while. And then I got to the task of filling my notebook, and fully engaging with everyone in the room, because I had pulled the old-school trick of basically putting blinders on myself.

Was I completely focused? No; the meeting went for over three hours, and I still had my phone on me, and not checking your phone for over three hours when its buzzing is something akin to torture, especially when you are, like myself, three thousand miles away from your family. But by the time the meeting was over, the client was satisfied, we had action points to work on, and my notebook had four pages of notes. And I write small.

Which I then took back to my desk, transcribed and edited, and used for two follow-up meetings and an email to the client. It's probably overkill, but when it comes to servicing a client, overkill is the side you should error on. Also, kind of, my brand? But back to the paper.

There's nothing magic about taking notes on paper. I can type faster than I write, the file translates easier with a cut and paste, and there's nothing wrong with people who do all of their stuff on screen. You can get distracted with a pen in your hand, especially if you have doodling skills. (I have none.)

But what a page does is prevent you from seeing all of the other things that you can do with your screen. It makes you more present to your audience, and less likely to be distracted. It adds a certain bit of gravitas to the proceedings, and triggers my memory of the event better later.

It also, likely, shows my age, and my training, because the start of my working life was as a journalist with a clipboard, with no mobile computers. Hence the self-consciousness, especially in marketing and advertising, where the people who are my age are not, shall we say, common. Or growing.

Which seems to be a bit of a shame... because my notes? Pretty good, honestly.

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