I recently came across these notepads for creative meetings from Behance (via PSFK). They are designed to make creative people more productive by providing highlighted spaces for you to record agreed ‘next actions’ during meetings. There are also spaces for noting your ‘prep/focus’ for a meeting, as well as general notes.
So what? You might think. Do I really need a special notepad to do that for me? Well logically you probably don’t - but in the middle of a meeting/discussion/argument, when ideas are flying thick and fast, it’s easy for agreed actions to get lost in the thickets of scribbled notes. I’ve printed off the sampler and found that the highlighted ‘Action steps’ slots make it blatantly obvious afterwards what you’ve agreed to do. Let’s face it, creative projects can get pretty complicated, so I’m glad of anything that makes things a bit more obvious and easy.
Have a look at the pads for yourself - no, they’re not paying me to write this, and you can download a free PDF sample. The Behance site also includes an outline of their Action Method for processing action steps and meeting notes. If you’re a hardcore Getting Things Done fan, it should probably slot quite easily into your GTD system.
Behance also have a section featuring creative professionals who make ideas happen so if that’s you you might like to let them know.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
This looks interesting. I’ll have to check it out.
Tim
http://www.reviewbasics.com
Seems to be for a small niche market that needs lots of structure. I’m all for organization and efficiency but I don’t think it would help me (unless the action steps were sent to my pocket PC or email). I paper means little to me until it makes it onto something electronic.
Hi Ashley, not sure I agree about the ’small niche market that needs a lot of structure’ - it’s for meetings where ideas are generated, so that looks a pretty big market to me
I do agree with you that it boils down to personal preferences - most of my to do lists are in electronic format, but this gives me a good ’stepping stone’ from meetings to the laptop.
Hi Mark
These Action Pads look like just the thing for workshops as well so participants can go away with clear next actions.
I have looked at the Behance webiste - are they available in the UK?
Sinead
Hi Sinead,
Yes they would be just the job for a workshop. I don’t think they are available in the UK sadly — you might want to check this website as well as the main Behance one: http://www.actionmethod.com