The Value of Writing Things Down

Welcome to becoming wiser with Dr. Robert A. Rohm, author and world renowned public speaker, as he shares stories involving his experiences and lessons learned in a good spirited, positive and fun way. Here's Dr. Robert A. Rohm.

Have you ever missed an important event? Maybe it was someone's birthday or an anniversary, Maybe it was a ball game that you wanted to go to and you just forgot to write it down. It slipped your mind. Maybe it was a funeral or maybe it was even at the grocery store where you just did not remember what you were supposed to do. Hi, I'm Dr. Robert Rohlm. One of the most important things I've ever learned in my life is the value of writing things down. It's so important to keep a pen and a piece of paper, maybe a little notepad. I know we live in a digital age where everyone has a smartphone or a tablet or computer or a laptop or something that they use, but there's nothing that I have ever experienced that helps me like a pen or a pencil and a piece of paper. Let me tell you how I developed this habit and it has served me well for over 50 years and it will serve you well also if you'll put this into practice. I'm going to share with you exactly how to do this in just a few minutes. So be open minded to consider the fact that if you want to get more things done, if you want to be more effective, There's a research that shows Professor Sakai out of the University of Tokyo did research and he found that people who use pen and paper get 25% more of the information down than those who use tablets and those who use iPhones. And the reasons? Because your hand and a piece of paper with a pen and it moves a lot faster than it can with the tablet and even scrolling up with the phone, you can look this information up and do the research. But for now I just want to share with you a practical methodology that I know works. And here's where my pain point was. In 1972 I was supposed to speak at an event on a Monday morning at 7 o'. Clock. I was supposed to arrive from 7 to 7:30. We were going to have breakfast and then 7:30 to 8 I was going to speak. Mr. Vance Riley had asked me to be the guest speaker. There were going to be 200 businessmen there who wanted to hear me come and speak to them. I was all excited. I was ready to go. And he called me on Friday afternoon. He said, I just want to remind you about Monday morning. He said, I'll come pick you up. I said oh Mr. Riley, you don't have to do that, that's out of your way, I'll just meet you there. And he said well you need to be there by 7 o' clock so we can start on time. He said, Robert, remember these are business minded people and they'll have to le to go to work at 8 so you'll start at 7:30 right after breakfast and you'll end promptly at 8. And he said then as a matter of fact, because of all these men, they love to support you. They want to be part of your organization, part of what you're doing and they want to use you in their business. Man, it was a great opportunity that weekend I'll never forget it was the weekend of April 22nd and the reason I remember that is because I went to my mother and father's house. They were still living at the time. We kind of had a birthday party for me on that Sunday and it was wonderful, the whole family was there and I got home late Sunday night. Monday morning at 10 after 7 my phone rang. Yeah, you know what happened? I forgot to go. Mr. Riley said, Robert, where are you? My heart almost stopped. I could not believe the pain I was in thinking there's 200 business people and they want to work with me, use me and basically become part of my team that we could work together on several projects. I was at home in bed asleep. I said, oh Mr. Riley, I'm so sorry. I'll be there in just a few minutes. All I needed to do was get up, shave, shower, dress and get there. It was just ridiculous. I was just in a state of shock. I'll never forget his last two words to me before he hung up. Never mind. Click. Boy. I didn't go back to sleep that morning. I felt like a dog. I went to Mr. Riley's place of business. I apologized to him. He didn't want to have anything to do with me and I don't blame him. Now he here's why I'm telling you that story. That was 50 years ago. Do you know how many meetings I've missed since then? Do you know how many meetings I've been late to in the last 50 years? None. And the reason is because I developed a methodology and I'm going to share it with you right now on how you can keep up with what you're doing, how you can get a big overview of what's taking place in your life on a week to week basis. Now please be open minded to This, I realize we live in a digital world and I think there's some great use for cell ph. I have one for tablets, I have one for laptops, I have one great use for that. But I'm talking about seeing your life in the big picture. Seeing your life and showing. I'm going to show you how to keep from having stress and pressure built up on you, because you can see what's taking place throughout the whole week. With all you need is a notepad or a regular, what we would call a regular piece of paper, like we would have in School, an 8 and a half by 11 sheet of paper or sheet of notebook paper across the top you'd write Monday, the upper on the top on the left, Tuesday in the top in the middle, and Wednesday on the top on the right. Okay, very simple. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday on your notepad across the top. Then halfway down you'd write Thursday on the left side, Friday in the middle, again halfway down. And then on the right side you'd write Saturday, Sunday. You also can put the dates by each of the days. Like if Monday's the 17th, by Monday you'd put 17, by Tuesday you'd put 18. By Wednesday, 19, Thursday 20, Friday 21, and Saturday, Sunday 21, 22. I'm just using that as an example to show you now you've got the days and the dates of the week. Sometimes we can be overwhelmed with activity because so many of us have so much going on. I was looking at my big idea that my goals and plans. I see things like my personal relationship to my wife, individual family members, my health, my yearly checkups, my marriage, my errands, running to the store. Have you ever been on one side of town and you ran a couple of errands, then you went to the other side of town to run a couple of errands and then you realized, oh, shoot, I forgot to get something when I was on the other side of town. If you had written that down, and I'll show you how to do it in just a minute, you could have accomplished more with less wasted time and wasted gas and money and everything else. If you had just thought a little bit ahead, there's friends that come into play, business emails, constant interruptions from individuals, paperwork, bills, investments, travel, employees, employers, taxes, finances. There's no end of all these things. And then you have an activity schedule for a week. You need to spread things out because nobody can do everything at once. So now that you've got the six quadrants, you might say the three at the top Three at the bottom. Remember, the one on the bottom right is Saturday and Sunday. So we two together. So we now have six areas. What you can do is you can start writing down the things that you have to do or that are coming up in that week. For example, there may be a birthday on Thursday. Well, you don't need to worry about that on Monday. Now you have a little bit of margin, but if you have it written down, you'll be surprised on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday how you'll be at a store and you can pick up a birthday present or birthday card. I see so many people waiting until they're on their way to a birthday party now. Now we got to stop and go shopping. We got to get a card. We've got to find the present. What's their name? How old are they? If it's for your children or for a friend, it basically shows absolutely no forethought. But when you have it on a paper on Monday, then I got a birthday party or I've got a dinner on Friday night, it gives you the whole week to lay things out and begin to look at them. Research shows. I mentioned this a little earlier with Professor Sakai at the University of Tokyo, that those people who write things down down have a 25% increase in the speed in which they can write them down and thus get them done over those that are simply using a tablet or smartphone. I think the reason is because when you look at something that you've written down with a, on a piece of paper, with a pen, you have muscle memory. You see it with your eyes, you can touch it with your, your paper and with your pen, and it actually creates a higher memory level because first of all, you're looking at. Second of all, you touched it. This will increase time management. This will help you to get more things done. It will cause you to not have a feeling of being overwhelmed. But you can pace yourself. Years ago, I was a school administrator. On Monday, it seemed like I had a hundred things to do. I learned to do this. I would write down, somebody would tell me something that had to be done on Thursday. Well, I could write that down on Thursday and then kind of see my workload spread out through the week. It helps you to prioritize. It helps you to plan better. It keeps you from missing events. If you have something written down, maybe you're going to have. Everybody has a different life and a different schedule. But listen to me, if you are going to have lunch with somebody on Tuesday and a different person on Thursday and somebody Else on Friday, wouldn't it be a good idea to just look at all that? That way if somebody calls you and says, hey, can you have lunch with me on Thursday? Hang on, let me just check right quick. Oh, you know what? I already have something on Thursday. Actually, I have something on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday of this week, but I don't have anything on Wednesday. How about Wednesday? Would that work? All because you're looking at your whole week. I know, I can hear you now. Have you ever heard of day planners and daytimers and other methodologies? Yes, but I want to tell you something. The most efficient person, one of my mentors, he's 95 years old. Now, the most effective thing I ever saw him do is keep a piece of paper and a pen in his pocket. And he would fold that paper in half three times and then he had put it in his pocket and anytime he had an idea, he would jot it down. And then when he would get back to his desk where he had the overview of the whole week, he would just simply transpose those little ideas that he had. Here was the word he used. I've learned how to capture good ideas. This idea of I'll remember or, okay, I'll put it down in my phone. I'll just put it at, well, again, 25%. If I can pick up my pace by 25% by just jotting something down on a piece of paper, I want to be open to do that. Think about I mentioned earlier, birthdays, appointments, you can have breakfast, lunch and dinner all on one sheet of paper where you see different people. It's the most effective way I have ever found to keep up with my life and not miss deadlines, not miss important schedules. Now, let me just throw one other little bonus here for you. We're going to be talking about personality and the different kind of personalities, the four basic types. And of course, everyone's a blend of all four of these. But the D type personality, they just want to see the big picture. Their attitude is cut to the chase, I just want to get the big idea and let's get things done. This works so well for them because they have their whole week at a glance. They can just look down and jot something down in these six different areas. And by the way, isn't it powerful? I cannot tell you how many times on the weekend there's a little margin and I can look at my next week that I have written down and I see I've got a birthday on Friday, I have an anniversary on Tuesday. Do I have an anniversary card. I promise you the worst thing you'll ever do is look at your wife and say, oh, wait a minute, sweetheart. I need to run to the store Tuesday afternoon and get an anniversary card and some flowers. Do you know how powerful it is to do that on the weekend? While you have a little bit of margin, have a little bit of time, I pick up some flowers for my wife, I hide them in my office somewhere. I get a card. I have that on Saturday or Sunday. I've got the flowers in my office in a vase, hidden behind a door or behind some papers or behind a desk or something. And then I don't have to think, oh, no, on Tuesday morning, I've got a million things to do, and I've had a few things to interrupt my day that I didn't know are going to happen. And I still need to go get a card and I still need to go get some flowers. If you want to do that, that's called having a stroke or a heart attack. That is not what I recommend. You know what I recommend? Giving yourself a little margin. Now hear me well. I don't think I'm better than anybody. I don't think I'm smarter than anybody. But I have learned how to live, so I don't have so much stress. And I create a massive amount of productivity by having a system. If you're D type, personality, very dominant, get things done. This works great for you. If you're an I type, that's more of my style. That's the inspiring type. One of my biggest challenges is being scattered, not being focused, not being able to keep up with details, data, information. This plan helps you overcome that, because now I've got everything written down and I have a little bit of margin and have a little bit of space. And I learned that this helps me not to forget where I'm supposed to be. I promise you, I have not. This is incredible. Do you hear my words? I haven't missed a meeting in 50 years. I didn't call somebody and say I forgot because I have a system. It's simple. Boy, I'll never get over the pain I felt that morning when I forgot to go. I never want to experience that again as long as I live. If you're more of the inspiring type, shoot for the hip. Have a great time with people. This will help you. If you're a supportive type, that's the third type. Supportive. They love people and want everybody to get along. Here's why this will help you. You have a hard time saying that. But if you were to say to somebody what says to you, would you like to have lunch on Thursday? Hang on one second, let me look here. You know, I would love to. I already have another commitment. Could we maybe do it another time? That helps you not to have to say no. This personality style doesn't like to say no. They don't even really know how to say no because they don't want to hurt anybody's feelings and they don't want to let anybody down. It's so good for you. And then the fourth and final personality, and we'll talk more about these in the future. The C, the cautious type, they're really very detailed oriented. They love this. Why? Because what I'm talking about is details, data, information. By writing something down, you use more of your muscle memory. I talked about that a little bit earlier. You use more of the, of the spatial, tactile part of your personality and of your mental and physical and emotional being. By having things written down that you can actually touch and feel and see on paper, it helps you to create more of a, of a calm, less emotional, less stressed, overwhelmed feeling. You know the truth of the matter, we all want to get things done. Have you ever been to the grocery store and when you got the grocery store, you thought, now what did I come to the grocery store for? That's because you didn't have it written down. You didn't have it on your list. That's a sad feeling. I know you can use phones. I've said this several times. I know you can use iPads, you can use tablets, you can use anything you want to do that works best for you. I would encourage that to you, but I'm just telling you, after working with different personality styles for over 31 years, I have found what I'm sharing with you today to be the most effective way for dominant types see the big picture. For I types, spread it all out so you don't let anything fall through the cracks. For supportive types, write it all down so you'll have a plan and you can tell people what your plan is and how you can work with them according to your plan and not feel pushed or overwhelmed by people. Or if you're the cautious type of, you can just keep on writing and keep on adding to your list and making notes all throughout the week. I hope this will be helpful for you. I know there's an old saying, have you tried it? And if you haven't tried it, don't knock it until you've tried. I Tell my daughters, they say, dad, have you ever heard of cell phone? Have you ever heard of an iPhone or a tablet? Yes. And you know what? And I still use those. I put birthdays in my phones. I put reminders in there. But to this, I have never found anything more powerful than getting you an 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper. Like a sheet of notebook paper across the top, Monday on the left, Tuesday in the middle, Wednesday on the right, halfway down, Thursday on the left, Friday in the middle, Saturday, Sunday on the right. And then you can kind of start spreading things out. Let me just tell you one more real quick thought before we leave. As I mentioned, I was a school administrator for eight years. You know, Monday morning it seemed like I had 50 things to do, and it's overwhelming. I had friends who had heart attacks and strokes. And by the way, are you aware that the number one time people have heart attacks is Monday morning? Think about, why is that? It's the new week. They're overwhelmed. It's the beginning of the day. I heard that. It scared me. I didn't want to have a heart attack or stroke on a Monday morning. And if you're a school administrator or teacher, Monday mornings are brutal. So I started writing things down on my list. And then I would look and I would say, no, wait a minute. This didn't have to be done till Thursday. Okay, this doesn't have to be done till Wednesday. Okay, this needs to be done tomorrow. I need to move that up. You see? And then I spread out and I had one sheet of paper with as many as 20 activities, but they were spread out all throughout the week. What a good feeling. Just take a deep breath. Oh, doesn't it feel good to know I have 20 things to do this week, but only have four of them that are due Monday and three of them Tuesday, five on Wednesday. And now I have some margin. Practice this. Try it. But if you find, like for me that I've been doing for over 50 years, this is the best methodology to reduce stress, to increase productivity, to work with my personality and others in order to be the best person you can be. Hope it's been helpful. I look forward to talking to you some more about these great topics on how to be a wise sage as we meet together in the future. Thank you so much.

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