This is like an episode of Seinfeld where George won't follow his boss into the bathroom but his boss ends up explaining the whole project while in the bathroom and George misses the whole thing. He won't ask his boss to repeat it because his boss thinks he is attentive and organized.

I am the type of person to show the vulnerability that I am human and have forgotten something. I would think quick and say something like, "in the anticipation of this meeting I forgot my portfolio, may I bother you for a pen". The vulnerability will hopefully open things up a bit…that is the number one rule of being liked right?

That might be the longest comment on a blog since last year. Today marks my 1 year anniversary for my blog.

Could use a new category here like light hearted moments, far side, or something along those lines!

This post is way too funny! I can litterally see your thought process, which is much like mine.

All through college up until my senior year I was a mental note taker. I figured if you are in class you will remember the important things. It's pretty much true unless it's real technical stuff or dates and details.

Now at work I take notes on the meeting so that I can immediately forget about what was just talked about until I'm finshed working on whatever I was originally working on and then I can go back and focus.

Hopefully, you remember the important stats.

I would have done the same thing as you Penelope. I'm normally a note taker but there has been a time or two when I forgot a pen and had to take mental notes. It's not nearly as effective. I can't tell you the number of times I thought I would remember something and actually didn't.

One trick I've used is doing a brain dump directly after a meeting or session before I do anything else, while it's still somewhat intact in my brain! Plus, you're totally right that writing down things helps remember it, so take notes just for the sake of fortifying your memory!

Oh, I am an obsessive note-taker too, and I don't operate well without pen and paper. Or at least pen. I probably have at least 7 pens in my purse at all times. I kid you not. I empty my purse out every week and make sure there are just 3 pens in it because I'm trying to de-clutter my life. And then by the end of the next week, there are like 15. That's probably why this week my fiance told me, as we started to put the furniture back in my bedroom he'd painted for my birthday, that we were going to have a garage sale just to get rid of pens. Because they are everywhere in my house.

Thanks for the story. A great, lighthearted end to a busy, crazy week.

Pen and paper works best for me, and I am never short of a pen. Its great for discussion to get on the same page.

“Do you have all this?” he says. “Can I erase it?”

I say, “Uh huh.”

He says, “I guess you’re a person who takes mental notes.”

Good details there, so things register well with you.

A few years ago I needed someone to build a Help file for a small piece of software I had written. It wasn't a big task but is something I abhor doing. A colleague of mine, hearing of my need to find someone, insisted that I hire his new girlfriend. So I did.

She came across the water on a ferry, which I paid for, about a 3 hour trip each way. I met her, did some small talk for a bit, and then we sat down to the task at hand. I went through my software application, explaining to her out it worked. Within seconds I noticed that she was rather still and asked, "Aren't you going to take notes?"

"No, that's okay, I have a photographic memory."

Uh huh. The rest of the session went on like this. We spent about 2 hours together and she didn't take one note.

About a week later I received an e-mail from her, asking me to write out everything I had gone over with her in person.

I concluded our business relationship on the spot.
I paid for her transportation, as per our agreement but did not pay her one cent for her time.

I don't know whatever happened to her or to that colleague of mine . . .

I never used to take notes. When I was in my third summer job, my boss noticed that I never took notes — and proceeded to chastise me. He said that no one could possibly remember everything. I said I had a photographic memory. He said that, even if I had a photographic memory, it made me look like I wasn't paying attention when I just sat there. He told me to write everything down so that, if some future boss had an argument with me, I could show them my notes. This was the only thing that convinced me. After all, I was 20 and these "old people over 40" didn't seem to remember anything. I could see one of them forgetting what they'd told me.

And so I've taken obsessive notes ever since. It's just to CYA. Of course, now that I am in my 30s and I have kids, it's the only way to CYA. I'm lucky if I remember to put my shoes on when I'm heading out the door! :)

Sorry, but forgetting to take pen AND paper to a meeting with an investor *Is* disorganized. It's borderline enough to keep an investor from investing. I would wonder if you were organized enough to take care of *my* money.

Also, because you didn't *fess up* immediately, I'd then question your honesty about it.

I could imagine this translating into making a mistake with *my* money, then being afraid to tell me about it.

Sorry, inexcusable behavior for a CEO. You were in the wrong here in several ways. Hopefully you'll never forget again, or learn to always keep a small notepad and many pens in every purse and briefcase you own.

I am INFP but somehow I have learned to make meetings work for me. I carry a beautiful spiral bound notebook (3" by 5")and a favorite pen into meetings. I focus on what is being said and jot down key words as the meeting progresses. If it is a small meeting I gently take it over! Then, after the discussion I ask the participants to work with me for ONE minute to craft bullet points from the meeting. I write these down word-for word. (Most meetings of any consequence only cover 3-5 items.) After the meeting, I send a list of action items within 24hrs. I have been told repeatedly that I "give good meeting." Thanks for the fun post. LOL!

When this happens to me, I just slash the artery in my thumb with a paper clip; a little bloodletting really shows how invested I am in what I'm doing.

This one's free, Penelope.

Very funny! I too have learned that if I don't write it down then the info goes in one ear and right out the other. In my line of work, details are crucial so I have taken my note taking a step further. I scribble notes at every meeting (working for the government means A LOT OF MEETINGS) and when I get back to my desk I re-write those notes on my PC and re-organize my thoughts. I find I usually remember more this way and then I have my meeting notes filed awway by date in a format that won't leave me scratching my head wondering if I wrote down an "L" or an 1….

Hey, whatever is agreed to in a meeting is going to be in the contract at the end of it all. The only problem I forsee is having to rehash stuff you seemingly agreed to in principle beforehand.

Ryan must be thrilled. Although he is good at finance and the finance aspect of the discussion was getting a bit complicated – you wish he were there so that he could have brought you a pen. And perhaps a cup of coffee?

I definitely agree. I am also a person who forgets everything ten minutes after the meeting, so I rely heavily on my notes to remind me of what happened, what the big picture is, etc.

Especially when you try to remember what happened at the meeting a week after.

I used to not take notes because I thought they had to be perfect and that was a psychological barrier for me. But now I just write down anything and everything that I have the time to write down, so that looking over the notes later fires up the right neurons in my mind. Really helpful to recreate the setting during which I was taking the notes.