6 ways to take quick notes at the convention

It is one of my favorite things to notice at the start of a session: the moment the program begins and everyone around you reaches for something to write with. You look left and there is a sister with a color-coded pen set and a notebook that looks honestly like it belongs in a stationery boutique. You glance right and there is a brother with a single ballpoint and a folded program he is somehow getting everything onto. Ahead of you, someone is typing on a tablet. A few seats down, someone appears to be writing in what can only be described as their own personal language.

We are all doing our best to get as much out of the program as we can, and its universally known that taking notes is one of the best ways to keep focused and retain the information coming from the platform.

How do you take notes at the convention?

I ask because I think most of us have had that moment mid-talk where the speaker says something that stops you mid-breath, something you know you want to hold onto, and your pen just does not quite get there in time. There is so much covered in a single day, across morning and afternoon sessions both, and even the most devoted notetaker can walk out having lost a few things he or she really wanted to keep. That used to bother me more than I like to admit.

So here are some methods that you can use to help you figure out how to write fast when you take notes, without missing what matters:

Personal Shorthand and Symbols

I once knew an older sister who used what she learned as a court stenographer to take convention notes. (They honestly just looked like scribbles to me but she could read them!) Another sister I knew had developed her own little private writing system over the years and tried to teach it to me.

So what is personal shorthand? The idea is simply that you stop writing full words where instead a symbol or abbreviation will do. An arrow stands for “leads to” or a star indicates something you want to come back to. “Jehovah” becomes J and “Prayer” becomes pr. “Congregation” can become cong.

It takes a few times using your shorthand system before it starts to feel natural, but once it does, your hand finally stops being the thing standing between you and the notes you actually want to keep.

What it looks like on the page:

Pray w/ faith → ans. guaranteed? No, but heard ✓

J. knows needs b4 we ask (Matt 6) ★

persev. prayer = trust, not desperation

Key Phrase Capture

A lot of us were taught to take notes by summarizing as we go, turning what the speaker says into our own words in real time. But sometimes by the time you have finished rewording the sentence in your head, the speaker has already moved on, and you missed the next point still trying to capture the first one.

So what some people do instead is simply write down the exact words the speaker used or the phrase that stood out, with just a word or two of context beside it. That is it.

What it looks like on the page:

“Jehovah is never too busy for you” – said in context of feeling unheard

“prayer is an act of faith” – how it demonstrates trust in Jehovah

“she prayed the same prayer for years” – point: persistence isn’t lack of faith

Scripture-First Notes

As each scripture is read or mention, you write the scripture down and then a brief note about the point the speaker tied to it. You focus on scripture-by-scripture points as they connect back to the material in the talk so you can capture what the speaker said it meant or connected to on their topic.

And if you have JW Library open alongside your notebook, you do not need to write the verse at all. Mark it in the app, note the speaker’s point as a note attached to the scripture with a tag for the convention program and keep moving. The two together make a genuinely lovely combination, and your wrist will thank you by the afternoon session.

What it looks like on the page:

Matt 6:7-8 – He already knows what we need; prayer is relationship, not information

Phil 4:6-7 – peace comes after bringing it to Him, not before

Luke 18:1-8 – persistence isn’t desperation, it’s trust

Two-Pass Notes

During the talk, write just the main points or every other word. Just an anchor word or two per point, enough to find your way back to it. Then during the lunch break, or right after the afternoon session while everything is still fresh in your mind, you go back and write it all out properly.

It feels like it should leave holes, and it does leave a few, but it turns out we can hold onto more than we realize when we are not spending the whole session with our heads down over a notebook. And what you write in that second pass tends to be the notes that actually stood out to you on a personal level.

What it looks like on the page:

First pass, during the talk:

prayer = privilege

Matt 6 – He knows already

persistence ≠ desperation

Second pass, filled in at lunch:

Prayer is a privilege. Jehovah already knows our needs before we ask, so the point of prayer isn’t to inform Him, it’s relationship. Persistence isn’t a sign we don’t trust Him, it’s actually the opposite.

One Line Per Point

Some people give themselves one rule and stick to it the whole session: one line per point, no full sentences, nothing that isn’t essential. Just the core of the main thought.

What I love about this one is that it allows you to be more present in listening to the talk and not just solely focused on getting every word. You don’t write a line until you have decided what the point really was, or you hear a main point that really stands out.

What it looks like on the page:

Prayer is relationship.

Jehovah knows before we ask.

Persistence is trust, not desperation.

Color Coding

There are two ways people do this:

The first is color coding by talk. One color for the morning session, a different color for the afternoon, or alternating colors talk by talk through the day. (This is what I tend to do.) When you flip back through your notebook later, you can find any talk without trying to figure out where one ended and another began. It is a simple thing that makes flipping back through your notes feel easier.

The second is color coding by topic, maybe even done later at home when you’re reviewing your notes with a set of highlighters. You take all your notes in one color during the sessions, and then later you go back through and mark by category. Blue for scriptures, pink for personal application, yellow for phrases that touched you personally, green for things you want to look up.

The notebook you took to the convention becomes something you return to days or weeks later, still finding things in it that are worth thinking about, researching further or remembering for later.

So. How do you take notes at the convention? I would love to know which of these feels most like you.