Can a $2 tool help make you a millionaire?

[Vigilante]

One of the smartest guys I know is the owner of a distribution company in Los Angeles, California.

20 years ago, he gave me a $2 discipline I still use daily. The discipline survives technology changes, strategy changes, and location changes. It survives business wins, and epic losses. It is a crutch, but a self created crutch.

The discipline? A legal pad.

He keeps one. He lives in the 2 block radius of Beverly Hills that every Californian is aware of, but most can't afford.

There are two critical tasks for the legal pad.

Task #1

• When he meets with someone, he has his legal pad handy.
• He takes notes
• When I was in pre-law, they taught me to take notes with a legal pad. Split the page by drawing a line down the first 1/3 of the page. Use the right 2/3 of the page to take notes (on whom ever is speaking) and use the left 1/3 column you made to write your questions so you can address them when the speaker is finished speaking.
• Even if you don't want the notes for later (you might...) the discipline of taking notes helps you concentrate on the speaker, and/or helps you appear to the speaker as if you are concentrating on the speaker

Task #2

• Every day, he uses a fresh sheet of paper as the "to do" list for that day
• We all have many things thrown at us throughout the day... put them on the "to do" list
• Put your milestone goals on the list
• Put your "shit I have to do today" things on the list
• Cross things off the list that you get done
• Carry over things to the next day's clean sheet that have to stay on the list

By the way, if someone comes in for an interview, or for a business meeting, and they don't have something to write with and something to write on, he assumes (maybe correctly) that they are not organized. This quick value judgment may or may not be fair, but perception is reality when he is the deciding factor in his sandbox.

After reading James Altucher's book Choose Yourself and his AMA thread on the forum, you probably have more need for a legal pad than just the above two things.

This strategy works for a multimillionaire who runs a hugely successful enterprise. It has kept me organized for the past many years. It might work for you.

 

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[tormat]

I know for some, just the act of writing done notes help you to remeber them later (even if you don't use the notes or read them ever again).

I am not a big note taker myself, but this sounds like a decent thing to try. I use a white board for my task lists and such, but paper will be something iof a renewal

 

[Vigilante]