Early on in my career I used to take copious amounts of notes at work, had note books filled with them. I then moved onto apps and got obsessed with trying the latest one to make me more productive, or so I thought.

I stopped doing this around 5 years ago as an experiment and never looked back, I am probably more productive now and I sense my memory is sharper. My colleagues comment about how I can recall things from months back without looking at notes (sometimes to their annoyance).

I have found myself instead thinking a lot more and actually talking to myself quietly to process concepts and ideas, this is a bit weird I know and few colleagues commented on it.

Also instead of taking notes from meetings I mark expected actions from them in my diary to hold others and myself accountable to time.

I also religiously follow the 'two minutes rule' by James Clear.