[duncanawoods]

People mention todo lists but there are some other note-taking styles that I like which are useful even if you have a great memory:

i) people - keep notes about your interactions with each person you work with. Review them before you meet with them again. The greatest way to piss of managers and colleagues is to have a poor grasp on what they have told you or asked you. Whatever note taking method you use, reserve a page/section of each person.

ii) decision making - I find the spin-up cost of getting back into a project to be about getting back into the open questions that I have thought deeply about but not yet answered. I suggest finding a note taking style that works for recording in-progress thinking as its happening so that you can be interrupted and get back to deep thought asap. I like an outliner style with short-hand to indicate e.g. pros/cons, causes/consequences, connections etc.

[r41nbowcrash]

>The greatest way to piss of managers and colleagues is to have a poor grasp on what they have told you or asked you.

That is if they have communication skills (which most people lack), share the same domain knowledge (usually the guy already knows the problem, and you'll be figuring it out in the next days, so there's no way you can even ask informed questions). Plus recall bias, plus confirmation bias, not to mention pure bullshitting, especially when things go wrong.

Dependence on memory is a system error. It means there's something wrong with the process, or the workplace lacks proper communication.

My default response to "I told you to...", is in every circumstances "no, you didn't". Until they know better.

[duncanawoods]

I don't really understand your point. Is it that staff shouldn't have to remember interactions with other staff? If so, I can't agree.

Good staff I have managed are fast to interact with verbally, remember what is asked of them, remember what they are taught, remember what they have promised, remember advice they have given and don't repeat themselves etc.

The bad staff claim no knowledge of what was asked, haphazard claims of what they agreed to and require to be shown how to do things multiple times. Some other bad staff refuse to agree to anything verbally and demand everything to be written down slowing everything down to a contract negotiation.

With care, even someone with poor memory can operate like the good staff. The bad staff are unemployable.