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OneNote

Capturing Thoughts When We Have Them is the Best Way to Keep Them

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It’s Easier to Find a Note Than to Try to Remember a Thought

That’s not to say that finding notes is easy. What I am saying is that whether it’s remembering a thought or finding a note…both require an intentional plan.

I’m sure you’ve had great, earth-shattering ideas when you were in the middle of a conversation or driving down the road or doing some important task. You thought to yourself, “I need to use this idea to…start a business, develop a new product, send a man to the moon, etc.

The problem is…once you get to a point where you can do something with this idea…you can’t remember what it was.

This is a common occurrence. I know it’s sure happened to me more times than I can count.

That’s why it’s a good idea to capture those thoughts when you have them and keep them from getting away. This is a big reason that I take notes and refer to them later.

Over the past several weeks we’ve discussed ways to take and store notes, digital note taking vs. paper, taking notes when learning, and note taking for meetings.

I don’t know about you, but my mind is going non-stop with a million thoughts a minute.

There is always something bouncing around in my head. Like I said earlier, too many times those thoughts were lost into oblivion. Some of them may be best left there.

However, some of them are great ideas. These are the ones that I don’t want to lose. This is why I catch my random thoughts and ideas in OneNote.

OneNote is a Microsoft note-taking program for information gathering and multi-user collaboration. It can gather notes, drawings, screen clippings, and audio commentaries.

Now let’s dig into capturing thoughts and working through ideas.

I catch a variety of different ideas and thoughts in various areas. I separate these into different OneNote notebooks and sections to make it easier to find them later.

First let’s look at my Brain Dump:

This is exactly what it sounds like. It’s my go to for making a note quickly. I go back through it weekly. At that time, I sort them, move them…if need be, decide if they’re worth keeping or take some action on them at that time.

Next is my Daily Action List:

This is a list of actions that are ongoing today, this week and in the future. I refer to it frequently throughout each day. It is constantly being updated. This is a great place to catch ideas that are action related and I don’t want to forget or lose.

Then there’s random educational notes:

Other thoughts and ideas that I may need to catch come from podcasts and audio books that I’m listening to. The example shown in this screen shot is from a Belay podcast about delegating that I was listening to. In this case I was listening to this in my truck. I simply paused the podcast and made a quick voice message. OneNote converted it to writing. These thoughts are now saved so that I can go back to them when I get a chance.

Lastly, we’ll look at a working through ideas:

This form of note taking is just what it sounds like. It’s working through ideas. In this example these are ideas about the future remodeling of an addition to our home. One of the early things that needs to be done in a construction project of this kind is the sorting of thoughts and ideas.

This is especially important when there is more than one person involved.

This is a list of things that I want, my wife wants, and we want. It is a place to catch thoughts so that we can work through the list preparing for the final project plans. Using OneNote, it allows us to both have this list and add to it as we think of new things.

I think that we have covered the process of note taking and storing fairly thoroughly over the past several posts.

If you have any note taking thoughts…feel free to capture them in the comments below.

If you’d like to know more about why and how I use OneNote, you can open my toolbox and take a look.

Note Taking Done Right Is Like Having a Memory Filing Cabinet (part 2)

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In Addition to Expanded Memory, it Can Also Serve as Meeting Preparation

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been discussing the issues of note taking and how this can be an overwhelming and daunting thing.

We started out with the importance of determining the why before the how. Next, we discussed the struggle of deciding whether to do digital or use paper. Last week we talked about the additional memory storage that is available with notes and storing them in a way so they can be found.

Last week’s focus was on taking notes for learning – lectures, classes, webinars, podcasts, books, etc.

This week we’re going to look at meeting notes and how they differ from learning notes. Meeting notes are more about actions than learning notes.

They are about discussions during the meeting, decisions made in the meeting, actions that need to be taken, when these actions need to be completed, etc. Meetings should have an agenda. An agenda is a form of note taking prior to the meeting. If you’re responsible for the meeting, you’re responsible for the agenda.

There are two different motivations for meeting notes

  • Preparation of a meeting that you’re responsible for organizing
  • Taking notes in a meeting that someone else has organized

An agenda is a form of “preparation” note taking.

Like learning notes, I prefer OneNote for my meeting notes. This is a Microsoft note-taking program for information gathering and multi-user collaboration. It can gather notes, drawings, screen clippings, and audio commentaries.

Notes can be shared with other OneNote users over the Internet or a network. OneNote is available as part of the Microsoft Office suite; it is also available as a free, stand-alone app via the website and the app stores of: Windows 10, MacOS, iOS and Android.

If you’d like to know more about why and how I use it, you can open my toolbox and look at OneNote.

On some occasions I will use a Word document. This may be because some people in the group need it in this format or it is an agenda that someone else has prepared previously.

The most important thing to remember when preparing a meeting agenda is…WHY are we having this meeting?

Here’s an example of a simple meeting agenda in OneNote.

Just like last week, if you look at the upper left corner to see what notebook we’re in, you can see that we’re in the Business & Organization Notebook. The Section is the second one from the left, the Team tab. Looking at the right side of the screen you can see we’re in Sunny’s subpage entitled Daily Meeting.

Below the heading of Daily Meeting in the upper left, you can see the date and time of the meeting. This is created automatically when a new page is started. These can be changed at any time.

You will also see another date on the left side above the agenda. This is because in this format I take notes during the meetings and keep each one in the same OneNote page so that that can be reviewed later.

In this view you’ll see the previous day’s agenda with notes. There are two additional colors on this agenda. The blue is notes I make to myself as reminders prior to the meeting. The red are notes made during the meeting.

Here is an excerpt from a Word document meeting agenda/notes. This was prepared by the church secretary and sent out to people on the committee ahead of time.

If I am responsible for reports or if there are things I want to remember during the meeting, I will add notes prior to the meeting – blue. During the meeting I take notes on my tablet, these are in red.

This can seem like a lot of work, but for me it’s worth the effort.

There was a time years ago when I was a young chairman of a committee at the church and was asked a question.

I couldn’t answer it because…I forgot what was discussed in the previous meeting.

This was a traumatic experience for a young man just out of high school.

Situations like this are, in part, what has led to me being the note taking nerd that I am. For me it’s about being accountable to those who have given me the responsibility, whatever that responsibility is.

Next week we’ll look at note taking as a way to sort our thoughts.

Note Taking Done Right Is Like Having a Memory Filing Cabinet (part 1)

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It’s Up to You to Determine If You Need the Additional Storage or Not

Last week I promised that we would look at my note taking system and how you can have a system that works for you.

Previously, we discussed the how’s and whys of note taking and the pros and cons of different systems. We talked about the fact that most people want a simple, “one size fits all” fix for note taking and there simply is no such thing.

But that doesn’t mean it has to be complicated either.

Note taking is relative to the level of organization and detail that you want to accomplish.

It can be as simple as writing it on a piece of paper or as complicated as you choose to make it.

The important thing to remember is…it’s your system!

I have been asking “note taking” questions of family and friends over the past few weeks. The answers I got were as wide ranging as the number of people asked.

The one thing that I don’t understand is why some people don’t take any notes.

All I can say is that either they have a lot better memory recall than I do or it’s just not important enough to put forth the effort.

There is just so much information that I want to remember or review later that I need a way to store it and then be able to find it when I need or want it.

Of the four different whys that I listed in the previous two posts…

  • Learning – lectures, classes, webinars, podcasts, books, etc.
  • Meeting notes – decisions made, actions to take, etc.
  • Sorting thoughts – pros and cons, cost comparisons, getting clarity, etc.
  • Preparation – outlines for presentations, ideas for sharing, agendas for meetings, etc.

We will look at learning today:

The foundation of my note taking system is OneNote. This is a Microsoft note-taking program for information gathering and multi-user collaboration. It can gather notes, drawings, screen clippings, and audio commentaries.

Notes can be shared with other OneNote users over the Internet or a network. OneNote is available as part of the Microsoft Office suite; it is also available as a free, stand-alone app via the website and the app stores of: Windows 10, MacOS, iOS and Android.

If you’d like to know more about why and how I use it, you can find that by following this link to open my toolbox and look at OneNote. There are a wide variety of similar systems, but this works the best for me.

Keep in mind that I’m a bit of a detailed organizational geek. I do love me some note taking.

Don’t let my system scare you off.

Here is an example of note from a Thrivable You course I took.

You can see in the upper left corner we’re in my Education Notebook. The tabs across the top are the different Sections in the notebook. We’re in the fourth Section from the left, Thrivable You. Looking at the right side of the screen you can see we’re in Session 23.

Below the Session 23 in the upper left, you can see the date and time of the class. This is created automatically when a new page is started. These can be changed if they need to be.

I usually take notes in an outline format, but this is just me. One of the things I like about OneNote is the ability to hide content (see the plus signs). This means there is more information there and I can open it by double clicking on the plus sign.

The Notes and Questions on the right side are things I think of during the learning and don’t want to forget but was not something that was presented as a direct part of the learning.

A great thing about OneNote and most digital systems is being able to search.

Notice the Search box in the upper right corner. Searching can be done by Page, Section, Notebook or the complete OneNote.

There is so much more about OneNote note taking that we could go into…but not today. If you would like more information and options about my learning note taking or OneNote in general, let me know in the contacts below.

Next week we’ll look at meeting notes.

How Do You Know the Best Way to Take and Store Your Notes

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The Hidden Secret to “Note Taking” Success is in the Word YOUR

Note taking is a complex challenge that’s been around for a long time. It’s the practice of recording information from a variety of sources including classes, discussions, meetings, podcasts, books, etc.

What’s the best system or method? How and where should notes be stored? How do you find them later when you’re looking for them? How should they be organized? And on and on and on…

Taking, storing and finding notes can be overwhelming.

The number of processes, systems and products that are out there is evidence of this. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just pick one and the work would be done.

These “note taking” questions arose in a recent conversation, and I can’t seem to quit thinking about it. So, my therapy is to write about it.

Like a lot of life’s struggles…we just want a quick simple fix.

I would say, note taking is a lot like life, in that we are all different. We have different purposes. We have different personalities. Who I am, isn’t who you are.  What works for me, won’t work for you.

Like life, note taking is a journey that will constantly be changing. There will be new ideas, thoughts, products and people showing us new ways.

Note taking, like life, is not a plug and play one time thing. It will need constant review and updating to keep us moving toward our best.

I never was much of a note taker in school. This probably explains my grades. Now I’m obsessed with note taking. But like everything, there’s still room for improvement.

Here are some of the common “note taking” questions –

  1. Should I write my notes on paper or type them digitally?
  2. How can I store my notes in such a way that I can find them later?
  3. How should my notes be organized?

These are important questions that can be hard to answer. The key to answering them, is to ask the why questions first.

Before how, you need to determine WHY…why am I taking notes? –

  • Is it part of the learning process? A way to record the information being presented in a lecture, a class, a webinar, a podcast, a book, etc.
  • Are these notes something that I’m going to want to refer back to? If so, why and how would I use them?
  • Is it just that the process of taking these notes will help me comprehend the content? The act of note taking has been shown to improve comprehension.
  • Am I taking notes as a process of sorting through my thoughts to make them clearer?
  • Are these notes a form of preparing for a future presentation, speech, blog post, podcast, book, etc.

The note taking process will vary, depending on the reasons that you’re taking them. After you’ve determined the why, we can discuss a variety of how’s.

Ultimately, YOUR best note taking and storing is going to be specific to YOU.

This doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Or that there isn’t help available for answering both your why and how questions.

Check back next week when we’ll look at my note taking system and how one can be designed to fit your specific needs.

Be thinking about your WHYs for taking notes so that you’ll be ready to go.

One of the Most Important Tools in My Toolbox

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How You Can Improve Productivity by Using OneNote

Let’s take a peek inside my productivity toolbox.

Most of the time when we hear the word “tool”, the first thing we think of is a circular saw or nail gun…not computer software.

However, production is more than just the physical aspect of producing things. The more organized we are, the more productive we are.

By nature as a recovering perfectionist, having things well organized is important to me. I know that to some people the level of organization that I love, makes them feel trapped.

The more organized we are, the more freeing it can be.

It’s about taking control of your life and making it what you want it to be.

For years I worked on ways to get and stay organized. Am I where I want to be? Not yet, but remember, I’m a perfectionist by nature. Getting and staying organized is a difficult thing and it only increases the more you try to do.

One of the best tools I’ve found for organization is Microsoft OneNote.

This tool is great for organizing and communicating. It does so much, so well, that I don’t need a bunch of different apps to do different things. Too often these various apps don’t sync well across different systems and devices.

I would equate OneNote to a three-ring binder with improved technology.

OneNote is the “Six Million Dollar” binder. Just like “The Six Million Dollar Man” this computerized version of a ‘notebook’ has superhuman bionic computerized capabilities.

A good comparison of OneNote to a binder is how I used to have project binders on site at construction projects. This was a place where information would be kept organized so that employees, sub-contractors, project management, architects and the customer could all have access to the specifics of that project.

OneNote is organized similar to a binder. You can have different “notebooks”, each book can be divided into multiple “sections” and each section can have “pages” and subpages.

Here are a few of the superhuman bionic capabilities of OneNote –

  • Share information with other people across multiple devices. This can be as simple as sharing a shopping list with your spouse or as detailed as an entire notebook with colleagues on a project.
  • Syncs automatically across multiple devices. If someone adds to the shopping list or checks something off a “to do” list, you will know it instantaneously if you’re connected to the internet. If not, it will sync once you are.
  • When changes are made, they are marked until viewed. If someone makes a change, I will be able to know that, go to the specific change and know who did it and when it was done.
  • Insert almost anything on a page. You can insert copies of other documents, screen clippings, photos, audio and video recordings, links to other pages and/or web locations, etc. This is only a part of what is available with OneNote.
  • Link from and to multiple locations. I can put a link for a specific OneNote page in a task reminder or calendar event or on a word document. Click on it and it will open that page, even if OneNote isn’t open.
  • Editing is really easy. Things on a OneNote page can be clicked on and moved to a different place on the page. This feature is great for prioritizing a list. If I want to move something higher on the list, I just move it there, no cutting or copying or pasting (although you can do those things as well).
  • It’s always ready to open and use. It doesn’t require the opening of a program, folder or a file before you can write something down. Click on the OneNote icon in the task bar and it’s open. A couple more clicks and you can write down your note before you forget it.
  • Great place for filing and storing. If I want to save an email from a customer with a picture and a link to a web site, I can do that right from Outlook.
  • Can protect sensitive info within a shared notebook. If I have a page that has ideas for my wife’s Christmas or passwords to my bank account, I can password protect those pages. This means that if my wife “accidently” goes to her Christmas page when she meant to go to the shopping list, she can’t open it without the password…and she doesn’t have the password.
  • Can draw or write on it just like paper. This feature is great for quickly gathering information with my tablet or phone. I can draw the floor plan for a room addition and write dimensions and notes right in OneNote.

This tool can do all this and more. Some people will probably say that it has too many bells and whistles or it’s too complicated. I’m sure this isn’t the best tool for everybody and that’s okay. Not every person uses the same cordless drill.

This tool is simple to use and a great way to stay organized.

Even if you aren’t a recovering perfectionist like I am, OneNote can help you be more productive and…

Isn’t that what we all want…to be more productive?

This post was originally published January 21, 2017

It was updated again on October 4, 2020

You’ll Never Get the Things You Want Done…Without Being Reminded

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How “Outlook Tasks” Can Help You Accomplish This

Organization can be difficult to achieve. One monkey wrench that regularly gets thrown into the organizational machine is forgetting things. This can be costly when it’s a meeting with a customer or a deadline for a proposal that’s missed.

Too many things bouncing around in our head at one time, makes us more likely to forget things.

Over the past several weeks we’ve discussed the system I use for scheduling my time and organizing my tasks. There were two main focuses.

The reasons for having a system –

The tools I use –

Now we’ll look at the third tool – Outlook Tasks. This is a separate function from the calendar in Outlook. On the surface, using Tasks in Outlook seems redundant to having lists in OneNote.

I shared how I use OneNote for collecting and sharing information. It is great for this. It’s easier to move things around when reviewing and prioritizing lists. Not to mention you can draw, record video, record audio, and a whole lot of other things that you can’t do in Outlook Tasks.

Next was how I used Outlook Calendar to block out and schedule my time. The benefits of a calendar, whether digital or written is allotting time for tasks. One thing written calendars and Tasks in OneNote don’t do is remind you of upcoming appointments and things on the to do list that need done.

Reminders are the game changer.

In Outlook, both calendar events and tasks can have reminders scheduled…there’s some reminders now. As I writing this a reminder alarm sounded and a window popped up on the screen. Now it’s up to me to determine what to do with these reminders.

One is a recurring meeting with myself coming up in 15 minutes (snoozed it until 5 minutes before). Two are action list reminders (snoozed for 15 minutes). Any of these reminders can be snoozed for a specific period of time or dismissed to be rescheduled later.

When I’m in the middle of doing focused work like preparing proposals for construction projects or writing a blog post, etc. It’s easy for me to lose track of time and forget things. Reminders help prevent that.

Outlook Tasks will connect with the other tools in my scheduling system.

All the tools in this system have specific functions that only they serve. At the same time, they all support the other and work together. (There’s the reminder again. Am I going to snooze them again or take a break from writing? I’m going to pause my writing and come back to it. I have another meeting coming up in 30 minutes.)

Here I am, back to writing. I only have a short amount of time to write before I need to go home to watch the Camping World Truck race that’s on this evening. Another thing that’s scheduled on the calendar.

I can set reminders in Outlook Tasks to be one and done or recurring at specific times and days. I can embed links in the tasks directly to action lists in OneNote. This way when a task reminder comes up, I can open it, click on the link and go directly to OneNote to that specific list.

I know all that scheduling and planning can seem overwhelming and it can be. You can decide if or how much scheduling and planning you will do. Not doing anything will leave you drifting through life with no clear destination. Having a system in place with reminders both for prioritizing and allotting time, will help you get things done.

Are you going to be in control of your life or is it going to be in control of you?

Opening the Toolbox & Looking at OneNote

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Organizational Tools Are as Important as Any Other…Maybe More

Last week I told you that we would open up my organizational toolbox and take a look inside. So, OneNote is the first tool that we’ll look at.

Being a self-employed small business owner is a difficult undertaking at best. This difficulty increases exponentially when organization and communication are operating poorly or not at all. This problem only increases when you’re successful and there are more things to organize and more people to communicate with.

During my thirty-five plus years of continually working to achieve and maintain some level of control I have used a whole lot of different tools. Some were old school some high tech.

The best tool I have found for organizing and communicating is Microsoft OneNote.

This tool is great for organizing and communicating. It does so much, so well, that I don’t need a bunch of different apps to do different things. To often these various apps don’t sync well across different systems and devices.

I would equate OneNote to a three-ring binder on steroids.

Maybe we should call OneNote the ‘Six Million Dollar’ binder. I have used binders for my organizing for years and still do, to a small degree.

A good comparison of OneNote to a binder is the way I used to have project binders on site at construction projects. This was a place where things would be kept so that employees, sub-contractors, project management, architects and the customer could all have access to the specifics of the project.

OneNote is organized very similar to a binder. You can have different ‘notebooks’ and each book can be divided into multiple ‘sections’ and each section can have bunches of ‘pages’ and subpages.

Just like “The Six Million Dollar Man” this computerized version of a ‘notebook’ has superhuman bionic computerized capabilities.

Here are a few of them –

  • Share with other people across multiple devises. This can be as simple as sharing a shopping list with your spouse or as detailed as an entire notebook with colleagues on a big project.
  • Syncs automatically across multiple devises. If someone adds to the shopping list or checks something off, you will know it in a matter of seconds as long as you are connected to the internet. If not, it will sync as soon as you are.
  • When changes are made, they are highlighted until read. If one of my virtual assistants makes a change, I will be able to know that, go to the specific change and know who did it and when it was done.
  • Insert almost anything on to a page. You can insert copies of other documents, screen clippings, photos, audio and video recordings, links to other pages and/or web locations, etc. This is just part of what I’m currently using or is available with OneNote.
  • Link from and to multiple locations. I can put a link for a specific OneNote page in a task reminder or calendar event or on a word document. Click on it and it will open up that page, even if OneNote isn’t open yet.
  • Editing is really easy. Things on a OneNote page can be clicked on and moved to a different place on the page. This feature is great for prioritizing a list. If I want to move something higher on the list, I just move it there, no cutting or copying or pasting (although you can do those things as well).
  • It’s always ready to open up and use. It doesn’t require the opening up of a program and folder a file before you can write something down. Click on the OneNote icon in the task bar and it’s open. A couple more clicks and you can write down your note before you forget it.
  • Great place for filing and storing. If I want to save an email from a customer with a picture and a link to a web site, I can do that right from Outlook.
  • Can protect sensitive info within a shared note book. If I have a page that has ideas for my wife’s Christmas or passwords to my bank account, I can password protect those pages. This means that if my wife accidently goes to her Christmas page when she meant to go to the shopping list, she can’t open it without the password…which she doesn’t have.
  • Can draw or write on it just like paper. This feature is great for getting down quick information with my tablet or phone. I can draw the floor plan for a room addition and write dimensions and notes right on it.

This tool can do all this and much more. Some people will probably say that it has too many bells and whistles or it’s complicated. I’m sure this isn’t the best tool for everybody and that’s okay. Not every person uses the same cordless drill.

This tool is simple to use and it makes it easy for me to stay organized.

Next week we’ll get out another tool that work’s in conjunction with this one.

This post was originally published January 21, 2017

Opening the Tool Box & Looking at OneNote

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Computer Tools Are as Important to Construction as a Saw or a Hammer

 

Being a self-employed small business owner is a difficult undertaking at best. This difficulty increases exponentially when organization and communication are operating poorly or not at all. This problem only increases when you’re successful and there are more things to organize and more people to communicate with.

During my thirty-five plus years of continually working to achieve and maintain some level of control I have used a whole lot of different tools. Some were old school some high tech. To this point the best tool I have found for organizing and communicating is Microsoft OneNote. This tool is great for organizing and communicating. It does so much, so well, that I don’t need a bunch of different apps that do different things and don’t sync well across different systems and devices.

I would equate OneNote to a three-ring binder on steroids. Maybe we should call OneNote the ‘Six Million Dollar’ binder. I have used binders for my organizing for years and still do to a small degree. A good comparison of OneNote to a binder is the way I used to have a project binder on site at construction projects. This was a place where things would be kept so that as different employees, sub-contractors, management, architects and the customer could all have access to the specifics of the project. OneNote is organized very similar to a binder. You can have different ‘note books’ and each book can be divided into multiple ‘sections’ and each section can have bunches of ‘pages’.

Just like “The Six Million Dollar Man” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Six_Million_Dollar_Man this computerized version of a ‘note book’ has superhuman bionic computerized capabilities. Here are just a few.

  • Share with other people across multiple devises.
  • This can be as simple as sharing a shopping list with your spouse or as detailed as an entire note book with colleagues on a big project.
  • Syncs automatically across multiple devises.
  • If someone adds to the shopping list or checks something off, you will know it in a matter of seconds as long as you are connected to the internet. If not, it will sync as soon as you are.
  • When changes are made they are highlighted until read.
  • If one of my virtual assistants makes a change I will be able to know that, go to the specific change and know who did it.
  • Insert almost anything on to a page.
  • You can insert copies of other documents, screen clippings, photos, audio and video recordings, links to other pages and/or web locations and this is just part of what I’m currently using.
  • Link from and to multiple locations.
  • I can put a link for a specific OneNote page in a task reminder or calendar event or on a word document and click on it and it will open up that page, even if I haven’t opened OneNote yet.
  • Edit things really easy.
  • Things on a OneNote page can be clicked on and moved to a different place on the page. This feature is great for prioritizing a list. If I want to move something higher on the list I just move it there, no cutting or copying or pasting.
  • It’s always ready to open up and use.
  • It doesn’t require the opening up of a program and folder a file before you can write something down. Once you open OneNote it just takes a couple of clicks and you can write down your note before you forget it.
  • Great place for filing and storing.
  • If I want to save an email from a customer with a picture and a link to a web site, I can do that right from Outlook.
  • Can protect sensitive info with in a shared note book.
  • If I have a page that has ideas for my wife’s Christmas or passwords to my bank account, I can password protect those pages. This means that if my wife accidently goes to her Christmas page when she meant to go to the shopping list, she can’t open it without the password…which she doesn’t have.
  • Can draw or write on it just like paper.
  • This feature is great for getting down quick information with my tablet. I can draw the floor plan for a room addition and write dimensions and notes right on it.

 I know that there is so much more that this tool can do and a lot that I don’t. Some people will probably say that it has too many bells and whistles or it’s complicated. I’m sure that this isn’t the best tool for everybody and that’s okay. Not every person uses the same cordless drill. I think this tool is simple to use and it makes it easier for me to be organized and to communicate.