Write Before a Meeting
We often think about writing as a formal act — something we do to communicate our well-thought-of ideas to the world. But writing itself can help us process information and gather our thoughts.
Arranging your data, thoughts, insights, and ideas in writing before going into a meeting guarantees a more effective discussion. Anything can happen during the interaction with other people. That is, after all, why you have the meeting in the first place. But if you enter the meeting with a well-prepared case, dilemma, or question, your voice will be heard more clearly. You will be better understood, and the team will spend less energy on interpretation and false understanding.
Putting down your view in writing allows you to reflect on it, design it, and refine it. As more people in the meeting articulate their views better — in a way that enables others to consider and challenge it — every minute invested in the meeting is better utilized.
Write Before an Interview
The best way to prepare for an interview is to write down what you plan to say and how you plan to say it to represent the best version of you.
An interview is a dialogue, but significant parts are just like a pitch. Writing down the things you wish to express will help you find the right way to say them. Don’t memorize what you write. Seeing what you will say and reading it aloud is sufficient to consider how it sounds, think how it will be perceived, and refine it as needed. And this can make all the difference.
Write Before You Act
We often think of writing as an act of communication, and for the most part, it is. But writing is also a great way to reflect and plan, even when we are the only ones involved.
Whether you are about to start a project or a significant task, taking some time to think about what you aim to achieve and how you will do that is always a good idea. Taking it one step further and writing your thoughts will help you reflect on them, consider alternatives, and refine your next steps.
Don’t confuse that with creating a plan or a list of tasks. Just write down your thoughts associatively, and then arrange them until they are coherent and make sense. If you revisit what you wrote from time to time, refine it, and use it as a guide for making decisions and planning, the value is even greater.
