🚀 Stop Dropping the Ball: The PM's Guide to Context-Based Notes

Shout out to Shivan for getting the riddle in record time last week! Before we dive in, I’m moving my weekly newsletter to Thursdays (aka Friday Jr.) instead of Wednesdays since it better matches my writing cadence. Finally, if you’ve been enjoying this newsletter, please tell your friends and coworkers to sign up! There’s a surprise gift for anyone who refers a friend 🤩.

What's a similarity between you and a clown? I’ll give you a hint; it’s not throwing pies in people's faces or getting into comically small cars. You're both juggling—except clowns get applause when they drop something, and you get angry Slack messages.

You're managing 15 projects, 47 Slack threads, and that one stakeholder who constantly changes requirements. Something's going to slip through the cracks. The question isn't if you'll drop the ball, it's how to catch it before anyone notices.

I've been there. I've tried every note-taking system under the sun, and most of them made the problem worse.

Why Centralized Notes Fail PMs

For the longest time, I tried keeping everything in one place. First, with a physical notebook that I'd carry to meetings alongside my laptop. I thought I could capture the most important details for easy reference, but my messy handwriting and lack of organization meant I couldn't actually find anything when I needed it.

So I went digital with a running document that stayed open on my laptop. I took a cue from my manager and kept all action items at the top, using it as a combo note/to-do list. Everything was centralized, which felt organized.

But the problems multiplied:

The search nightmare: When you need that one crucial detail about Feature Y, you're stuck searching through 47 pages of random meeting notes.

The copying trap: I already had separate docs for 1:1s and recurring meetings, so I'd end up copying notes from shared documents to my personal notes, creating duplicate information everywhere.

The centralized approach fails because it optimizes for capture, not for use. But PMs don't get paid for taking good notes—we get paid for making good decisions with the right information at the right time.

The Context-Based Revolution

Here's the shift that changed everything: Information should live where decisions get made, not where it was captured.

Traditional note-taking asks, "Where should I write this down?" Context-based note-taking asks, "Where will I need this information?"

Instead of dumping everything into one massive document, I now take notes directly in their appropriate context. When I spot a crucial Slack thread about Project X, those insights go straight into Project X's spec doc. When a coworker brings up an important point that needs discussion in a design review, I flip over to the design meeting notes and add it there. That way, the information is always found where it's most needed.

I do still keep a centralized catch-all doc, but it serves two specific purposes: capturing notes that don't fit anywhere else and, more importantly, tracking my action items and to-dos that I need to stay on top of.

The final piece of my system is a physical notebook—but only to capture the three most important tasks I need to get done each day. Every morning, I look at my centralized to-dos, determine what's most critical, and write those three tasks down. They sit on my desk staring at me, so I don't let the day slip by without tackling what actually matters.

Example in action: During my 1:1, my user researcher mentions that customers are confused by our checkout flow. Old me would scribble this in my personal notes to bring up with the team later. New me flips to our recurring product meeting and adds the note in there. Why? Because that's where we'll actually decide whether to prioritize this issue.

Next week, when we're debating what to build next, I'm not frantically searching through meeting notes. The user feedback is sitting right there in the prioritization doc where the decision gets made.

The magic is that every piece of information automatically ends up in its moment of maximum usefulness. I keep 5-7 key documents pinned in my browser tabs: my catch-all notes, this week's 1:1 agendas, active project specs, and upcoming meeting docs.

Your Action Plan Starting Tomorrow

1. Identify your 5 most active contexts (recurring meetings, active projects, etc.).

2. Create dedicated docs for each (if they don’t already exist) and pin them in your browser.

3. Practice the context switch—when information comes up, ask "where will this be most useful?" and put it there.

This might not revolutionize your work, but it will help you create some structure from the daily chaos of being a PM. You'll be better at not dropping the ball, and you'll stop scrambling to remember what was discussed because everything will be in its relevant place.

And who knows? Maybe with all this extra mental bandwidth, you'll finally have time to practice your juggling skills. Those clowns won't know what hit them.

Reply with any tips or tricks that you use to make sure that nothing falls through the cracks with your projects.

The Riddle

The Meme