Ditto clipboard manager/history. This helps both in avoiding context changes (alt-tabbing back and forth, etc.) and in retrieving older items. Quite configurable.
Winsplit Revolution window size/position manager. Put windows where you want them with a single chord. Quickly get windows e.g. side by side, without having to mouse around.
ToDoList list/project management. Hierarchical lists with priorities and many other identifiers, as well as full text comments. Gets items and relationships down quickly and without a lot of kerfuffle.
Paper and pen environment:
Original notes in black ink or pencil. Post meeting / follow up notes (e.g. fleshing out what was originally noted more briefly) in blue ink. Items of particular concern in red ink or marked up with red ink. Occasional, judicious application of a highlight marker.
A digital camera to quickly capture or to provide a quick copy of items of particular interest, written, printed, or otherwise (great for capturing the state of a whiteboard).
I should add that the ink colors I described work equally well as text colors in electronic documents.
In particular, I'll take/make notes in a layered, bulleted list / outline format. This lends itself to quickly noting items together with at least some structure, while avoiding the superfluous words needed to tie things together in a less structured format. Original notes in black. When I get some time to myself, I flesh things out in blue. Items of particular note in red.
It's very helpful to have shortcut keys for changing indent. There's no need to keep reaching for the mouse to execute those changes.
I use PTHPasteboard on OS X (equivalent to Ditto). The principle is to be able to keep more than one item in your clipboard, you can retrieve older ones with a keyboard shortcut.
This should be implemented in every OS by default.
Ditto clipboard manager/history. This helps both in avoiding context changes (alt-tabbing back and forth, etc.) and in retrieving older items. Quite configurable.
Winsplit Revolution window size/position manager. Put windows where you want them with a single chord. Quickly get windows e.g. side by side, without having to mouse around.
ToDoList list/project management. Hierarchical lists with priorities and many other identifiers, as well as full text comments. Gets items and relationships down quickly and without a lot of kerfuffle.
Paper and pen environment:
Original notes in black ink or pencil. Post meeting / follow up notes (e.g. fleshing out what was originally noted more briefly) in blue ink. Items of particular concern in red ink or marked up with red ink. Occasional, judicious application of a highlight marker.
A digital camera to quickly capture or to provide a quick copy of items of particular interest, written, printed, or otherwise (great for capturing the state of a whiteboard).