Classification of Follow Up Call Notes
Notes were taken during the call. The notes referenced things discussed in the call. Without the call, the notes did not reconstruct the call.
Field Guide to Follow Up Call Notes Operational Stages and Known Failure Modes
Stage 1: The Notes Are Taken
During the call, notes are made in a text application, a physical notebook, or a messaging app's own note-taking field. The notes record: names, abbreviated references to topics discussed, action items phrased in shorthand, and commitments that were made verbally.
The notes are legible. Their meaning is contingent on the call that produced them.
Stage 2: The Call Ends
The notes are saved. The call ends. The notes represent the call adequately in the thirty to ninety minutes following the call, during which the memory of the call provides context that the notes lack.
After ninety minutes, the context begins to degrade at a rate proportional to the number of other calls and tasks intervening.
Stage 3: The Notes Are Reviewed
The notes are reviewed, typically at a point when a follow-up action is due. The review produces alarm.
The note "follow up with T on timeline" refers to a T, a topic, and a timeline that are not specified in the note. T could be two people whose names begin with T who were on the call. The topic is recoverable from context if the context is still present. After seventy-two hours, it is not.
Stage 4: The Reconstruction Attempt
The calendar is checked for the call time. The call participants are reviewed. The topic is inferred from the participants' known areas of responsibility and the approximate date of the call. A hypothesis about what "timeline" refers to is formed.
Call notes that cannot be understood without the call are not notes. They are anchors that require the memory they were supposed to replace.
The Alarm
The alarm is measured because this is recognizable. The failure mode is consistent across note-takers, note formats, and call types. The note-taking was done with the intention of creating a record. The record was created. The record is not a standalone document.
Stage 5: The Commitment Is Acted Upon or Not
Two outcomes occur with roughly equal frequency. The reconstruction attempt succeeds, the action is taken, and the follow-up is attributed to the note-taking that almost failed to support it. The reconstruction attempt fails, the action is missed, and the note is cited as evidence that the note-taking was inadequate.
Field Note
Notes taken during a call that include the subject of the note, the person the note involves, and the specific commitment made in one sentence are recoverable after seventy-two hours. Notes taken for self only, with assumed context, are not.
The self of seventy-two hours later does not have the context the current self assumes.
This note will be filed.