Want to take notes during your coaching session?

There are coaches who choose not to type notes on their laptop and therefore work completely from the 'now'. And I also know coaches who take notes during the coaching session. What works well is of course personal for everyone. Some people only use it during the intake and others use it during every session.

This blog is about It taking notes during coaching sessions. Because what do you do as a coach? Do you take notes or not? How do you take notes? And why would you take notes? These are all questions that will be answered below.

Take notes? Not me.

Let me start with my own experience. In 2016 I completed my NLP Master Coach training. During that training we were instructed to work with the so-called “tenner clients”. Clients that I coached for ten euros, so that I could help someone and immediately get my feet wet to gain experience.

It was at that time that my enthusiasm for systemic coaching sparked. Which then meant: coaching from the now and working with the impulses that came to mind, which is why I did not use notes. I found it distracting during the session, which meant I couldn't pay attention to the other person.

How I started looking at notes differently

A few months later, with several coaching programs under my belt, I started to notice different needs among my coachees:

1. The coachee who needs a complete process. Consider multiple sessions.
2. The coachee who comes when she/he encounters something. Consider a session every now and then.
3. The coachee who does not necessarily encounter anything, but above all wants to discover what is possible.

Perhaps you can imagine that when supervising multiple coaching processes and having different types of coachees, who all have their own frequency and need for rest, I decided to take notes anyway.

Mini survey: how do other coaches take notes?

Lately I have spoken to many coaches from within and outside my network. Below you will find my findings when using notes during coaching sessions. 

Paper

I had to laugh a bit at my findings. And not necessarily when taking notes on paper (I also use this method myself). But I have encountered more coaches than expected who still save their notes the traditional way. Some put them in folders, others have a coaching book and others leave the notes on their desk.

If I were to use this, I'm sure I would lose a lot of documentation.

Digital

Of course, minutes are also used digitally and in different forms, namely: via your telephone, via your tablet or via your laptop. 

• I have spoken to several coaches who make some small notes on their phone, so that it is immediately in the right place. 
• Coaches use drawing and writing pens on the tablet, which actually imitates paper, but in this case it is also stored directly in the cloud.
• And I have rarely encountered taking minutes on the laptop. I did speak to a business coach who immediately put her notes in a shared document, so that they are both informed.

Personally, I have not yet used the digital form in my sessions. As I write this, it might be an idea to use a tablet with such a writing pen. That saves another step in my current strategy. More about that later.

When do I take notes?

In my current strategy it depends on the type of session and which method, techniques and exercises I use.

• Intake

I definitely take notes during the intake. I listen directly to mottos, beliefs, ages, values, repetitive sentences, what is said about family members, who is talked about and who is not talked about, obstacles and deeper desires, etc.

It may seem like a lot, but I mainly note the things that stand out, that are repetitive and what is said between the nose and lips.

In addition, I use scale figures for specific areas of life during each intake. For example: how do you score in terms of love or fun, etc. on a scale of 0-10? And by regularly using this method, I can make progress measurable over a longer period of time.

• Other sessions

Depending on what arises during a session, I write down certain notes. When I do body-oriented work, I take little to no notes. During systemic work, I make various notes about facts from the system, but also, for example, a genogram. And when we do some more conscious methods, like exploring value systems or goals, I take more notes.

So it depends on which layer I'm working on. The more conscious, the more notes. The more unconscious, the less.

What do I take notes on?

There is a lot to write down during a session, but what can you pay attention to to write down the most essential things:

• Values

The coachee's values are sometimes on the surface, because they literally say: "I think honesty is important." But sometimes they can also pass by more inconspicuously. 

In any case, values are what drives a person. And therefore very interesting to keep track of it.

• Empowering and limiting beliefs

Beliefs are on the same level as values. They are very decisive for the behavior that someone exhibits. So this is about what someone believes about themselves or about the world around them.

• Rules of life

Everyone has heard certain sentences, sayings, mottos or sayings from their father or mother, brothers or sisters. But of course they could also be teachers or other influential people from the past. Fictional or not. I call these statements rules of life. 

• Repetitive ages

When your coachee tells stories or experiences, they are often expressed from a certain age. Finding this out makes me ask the question, “how old are you now, now that you're telling me this?”
The interesting thing about this is that when I return to the same age more often, this may be a phase where a barrier or obstacle has arisen.

• (Unconscious) desires and wishes

For me, one of the most important aspects of coaching is knowing which direction a coachee wants to go. And I regularly encounter coachees saying: “I don't know what I want,” but in conversation they can clearly describe how they envision their future. 

This is information that I sometimes use immediately and sometimes save for a more valuable moment.

In that case I'll make a note.

• Decisions

As far as I'm concerned, almost every change starts with a decision. The moment the coachee chooses: now I want it differently. And I write down the decisions, so that at the end of a coaching process I can give back what we have done. How many decisions have been made and especially what consequences they have had.

• Genogram

For me, every coaching process involves connecting to the family story. The genogram gives me immediate insight into who the members of the system of origin are.

• To repeat

Finally, I note down anything that is mentioned repeatedly. These can be recurring words, but also stories that the coachee refers to.

How do I use notes?

I make my notes on a blank A4. After a session I may add some additional information, but if you know me, you know that I don't like to do double work. And certainly not about retyping ;). So once done, I scan it with my phone (these days I use the paid version of TurboScan) and then send the document directly to my laptop. 

Once on my laptop, I open the coachee's track Trackler and then I create a closed note. Finally, I upload the photo to the note in Trackler. Et voilà: all the information, in a simple way, in one place.

See how here create notes within Trackler or see below how to create a note within Trackler:

Additional note

Finally, I create an extra closed note for each coaching process, in which I write down what I did per session. So which techniques I have used on which emotions, beliefs, feelings, thought patterns, etc.

I do this as a reminder, so that I know what I did. I also see it as a reflection on myself. 

Is taking notes a lot of work?

It may seem like I do a lot of work taking notes, but in reality they are keywords and short sentences. And especially by using the scan, I don't have to type anything to minimal in Trackler. An alternative method is the built-in voice note functionality, for taking notes while driving, walking or simply not writing. 

In addition, this is a description of how others and I do it. Ultimately, I only write down what I feel: “this is essential”.

For now I advise you to experiment. So even if you have been doing something a certain way for a long time, now try something different. Maybe you will surprise yourself with a different method. And if you are new or just in the profession: investigate what suits you. There is no right method, just the one you like!

Please let us know how you do this, so that we can learn from each other. And if you have any questions and/or additions, ask and share them below. 

Tom