The first month of a new job is ten walkthroughs a day, each given once, by someone busy.
How expenses work. Where the release checklist lives. Who signs off on what. The Friday rule. You nod, you type a few words, and by week three “Friday rule” is two words in your notes that mean nothing at all.
So you ask again. Everyone does. But there’s a way to be present for the explanation the first time and still have the whole thing when you need it.
One note per walkthrough
Name it after the person and the topic. “Priya, expenses.” “Sam, release checklist.” A quick “mind if I record this, so I don’t have to ask you again?” and most people say yes. Then put the phone down, tap record and listen.
Don’t try to write the explanation. Type the words you’ll go looking for later.
- expenses
- receipts under £25
- who approves
- the Friday rule
That’s the whole note. Four lines, each one stamped with the moment in the recording it was typed. The recording holds the explanation; your note just needs to point at it.
Three weeks later
It’s Friday, and you can’t remember the Friday rule.
Open the note and search for “Friday”. Noted takes you to the line. Tap the time beside it, and there’s your manager, explaining it, in her own voice. Not your three-word version of it. Hers.
That’s the difference between notes and a recording with notes. The search finds the line. The tap plays the moment. You get the exact words back, and you never had to ask twice.
On a Mac it’s ⌘F, the same as any document.
The questions you keep asking
Keep every walkthrough in one notebook for the new job. Then when a word comes up again, “VPN”, “timesheet”, “the Jenkins thing”, search the notebook and every note that mentions it is right there, each line a tap from the moment it was said.
For the walkthroughs you’ll come back to most, transcribe them. Transcription runs on your device, so the audio stays with you, and the explanation itself becomes text you can search, not just your pointers to it.
What you’re left with
By the end of the first month you have something nobody hands new starters: every explanation you were given, in the words of the person who gave it, findable by a single word.
You were present in the room. You listened properly instead of scribbling. And you still have it all.
Get Noted on the App Store & Mac App Store
Be present in the room. Keep the recording.