When trying to come up with a title for this post I wanted to use some sort of pop culture reference to note-takers, scribes, or secretaries, but all of the common ones that came to mind were at minimum vaguely sexist. Think of a woman walking into a male-dominated meeting and a crusty boomer exclaiming, “OH HEY the secretary’s here!” While bemoaning my dilemma over breakfast I exclaimed, “Why is it like this; writing things down is for boys too!” My wife responded, “I think you have your title.” And so I do!

The history of writing things down is layered with irony. Due to changes in how we’ve done this (languages, methods, calendar systems, etc.) we don’t know if the earliest written records are ones that date 2,000BC, 6,000BC, 40,000BC, or older. Add in the ones destroyed or lost, and some cultures (both modern and ancient) outright rejecting the creation of written records, and you have a rather untrustworthy overview of documented human history.

Sidestepping any thorny cultural arguments, writing things down is a good idea. The human brain and mind are both imperfect and susceptible to a host of issues. And in the digital age, records are faster and easier to transmit than oral communications. “That meeting could have been an email!” is a common lament for a reason. If your purpose is to transmit information from your brain to someone else’s, especially across time as well as space, writing it down is the most effective way to achieve this.

In the context of a professional space, I like to organize “things that are written down” into three categories: hard records (such as customer contact details, accounting, personnel files, and operational documents), soft notes (such as sales notes, check-in meeting notes, and to-do lists), and administrative documents (such as policies and standard operating procedures (or “SOPs”)).

Those examples are a good starting point for the sorts of things that should be written down; especially the hard records and administrative documents. Policies and personnel records are probably already part of your information management, even if you don’t have a fancy document management system (or “DMS”). This takes us into a meta: it’s a good idea to document your documents. Make a list of what your organization deems necessary to record and keep. Once you have a basic list you can add details like retention lengths and governing entities or frameworks. Make sure you consult with your accounting and legal resources when it comes to things like personnel files, tax records, and other categories of records with legal requirements for security or retention. And if you need help with your initial buildout, ScaleBright Solutions is here for you!

There are some things you may intentionally choose not to write down. For example, if you’re having an informal meeting with an employee as part of a performance improvement plan (or PIP) and you decide to take notes, that meeting is now a formal meeting, and retention of and access to those notes may be subject to labour law (disclaimer: I am not a labour or HR law professional, so please consult with one on this).

My final recommendation is to make writing things down part of your workplace culture. Normalize taking notes and documenting things. If you can make writing things down a subconscious, automatic function, it will stop feeling like another layer of burden and become just another task that happens without having to think about it too much. And for all the men out there, remember, writing things down is for boys too!