Stop wasting minutes per call on notes
If a note takes minutes, you will delay it. Delayed notes are forgotten notes. Forgotten notes are how CRMs go stale.
The fix is not “be more disciplined.” The fix is to design notes that fit the real day.
The 2-line note pattern
After every call, capture just two lines:
1. Outcome: what happened 2. Next step: what you will do next, and when
Examples:
- Outcome: Interested in pricing, asked for a summary.
- Next step: Send pricing summary today.
- Outcome: No answer, left voicemail.
- Next step: Call again Thursday morning.
Why this works
Short notes do three things:
- Preserve momentum: you can move to the next call without friction.
- Keep context alive: the outcome is enough to restart the thread later.
- Make follow-up inevitable: a clear next step becomes your daily list.
What to avoid
- Long transcripts copied into notes
- “Soft” statuses that don’t trigger a next action
- Extra fields that don’t change the next decision
The rule of thumb
If your note takes longer than your follow-up, your system is too heavy.
If you want a CRM that makes this the default instead of an exception, start here: