Lifehacker has an interesting article up regarding the effect that taking notes on someone can have on the speaker (as opposed to the note-taker). The basic idea is that taking notes on what someone says affects them such that they give more useful information. The example they use is taking notes at the doctor’s office, which they believe makes it more likely that the doctor will give additional useful information out. Their point was very interesting and something worth looking at, but it’s not the point of this post.
The Lifehacker post got me thinking a bit about the places people take notes. I typically think of taking notes in school or at work primarily, but taking notes can be really useful in the rest of our lives as well. For instance, one of my friends told me a story of how he used Pear Note to take notes on a trip to his accountant’s office. He said it was really useful in remembering all the complexities of tax law that they discussed.
I typically stick to the more traditional settings, but I really want to try some of these less usual locations. Have you taken notes in a less usual setting? If so, please post in the comments to give the rest of us ideas for other places we can improve our lives by taking notes.