Title: This ONE (TWO THREE FOUR) trick will help you learn FAST
Thumbnail: Me but like goro with 4 arms and then each hand has me putting up 1 finger, 2, fingers, 3 fingers, 4 fingers…
Okay so just want to jot an idea down right now that might have legs. Tried it here:
https://twitter.com/activerecall/status/1409694003721764865/photo/1
I’ll call it like the 1-2-3-4 technique or something like that.
- Problem: Listen to podcasts but sometimes forget what I listen to or don’t have time to pause to take notes on the episode
- Solution: A framework for just-enough notes
What’s just enough? For an episode, four takeaways with small visuals seems like a good amount of learning. I don’t think I could keep up other sites if I was trying to the straightforward approach of taking good, digestible notes of entire episodes. That requires listening to the episode and typing at the same time.
Instead this system will help me recall a few things as soon as I have a minute to sketch out some ideas.
Enough explanation, here’s what it is.
Take a notecard or sheet of paper, draw 2 lines for 4 boxes. In the boxes, draw…
Box 1 : fact or figure — A nice cue for this is if you hear a big number or small number or probably just any number. Earning $10 million, living on $7000 for a year, etc…
Box 2: contrast — This was one of the visual filters that stuck with me from the Visualize Value fundamentals course. In any interview, there‘s bound to be some useful comparison. Either some bad process vs a better one, some company vs another, or a before & after.
Box 3: tiny story — Similar to above, there’s going to be some story worth sharing from any podcast episode. Usually, someone being interviewed will tell some portion of their career arc. The 3-step story is the basic story formula: beginning, middle, end. The middle box is really all you need: some key epiphany or mentor or obstacle. Then paint how much a lazy slob they were before and how successful and white their teeth became in the “after” box.
Box 4: 2×2 (4 boxes) — Apparently a management consultant classic. The 2×2 matrix always helps in a deck and makes it look like you structured your thinking. Which, to be fair, you did. There isn’t always an obvious 2×2 in every podcast episode, but you can usually come up with one if you’re keeping an eye out. You can skew any “keys to success” or “what do you look for in…” answers into a 2×2.
So there you has it. The takeaway framework I’ll experiment with for future podcast notes. And probably book notes too.
A 1-2-3-4 recap:
- 1 fact
- 2 things compared (this vs that)
- 3-step story
- 4 boxes (2×2 matrix)
Enough writing about listening and back to actually listening!