Using Video For More Efficient Note Capture: The How And Why
Why capturing your notes-to-self as video files rather than text documents can save you time while also capturing more useful information
Video is occupying a more central role than ever in modern communications.
And so, I thought I would share a practice I’ve been using for the past couple of years in order to use it to expedite the capturing of information.
It’s simply this: when preparing for meetings, instead of capturing information in textual format, I’ve begun recording screenshares and filing them away for my own later reference.
Of course, video can be used for note-capturing in much broader contexts than this. But it provides a useful case study in how video, as a technology, can usurp text and audio — doing a better job at recording important information with less effort expended in the process.
Use Cases
During any given week over the past number of years of my working life, I’ve found myself preparing for a number of business meetings with clients and/or business prospects.
Every meeting with somebody I haven’t met before calls for basic due diligence — to ascertain who the person is, anything relevant about their background, and why our paths have crossed.
During the course of your average working week, I rarely have the luxury of doing that twice. On the plus side, if you need to brief yourself regularly for new client meetings, you eventually get somewhat proficient at it — or at least develop a robust methodology.
My traditional format for preparing myself for meetings — a methodology I borrowed from an internship at the Mayor of Jerusalem’s office — included drafting up a document with screenshots from the internet to paint a picture of the person and their life. To humanize what can otherwise be a dull collection of facts, I always make sure to include a headshot.
To adapt this note-taking and memorializing process for video I simply:
Install OBS Studio
Although screen recording apps now come in plentiful flavors and formats, OBS, in my view, remains the most powerful application for combining sources — like a webcam and a screen, or a couple of them — in order to create information-rich video screencasts.
Using a powerful but free tool like OBS that works at the operating system level (rather than a Chrome extension) gives you an awful lot more power and flexibility. The information-gathering process can be captured in real-time and quickly shared with other team members (like a virtual assistant / VA, if you have one).
Although OBS might be a little bit more intimidating than some friendlier-looking tools, it’s really worth investing the time at becoming proficient in it. It’s cross-platform, available on Linux, Mac, and Windows.
Record The Screencast
If I’m preparing for a meeting — or using video for another note-capturing purpose — I’ll typically combine a webcam recording with a screen recording to create the video file. I’ll narrate into a desktop microphone as I go along.
Store Your Video Somewhere Private
Naturally, you’ll want to store your videos for later reference somewhere you can access but others can’t.
Cloud storage is cheap these days and screencasts don’t tend to generate particularly heavy video files.
You can host these videos anywhere secure that allows for private storage. For instance you can:
- Upload the recording output files to Google Drive and don’t share them with anybody else
- Upload the videos to YouTube and configure their privacy setting as ‘private’
Storing your video note recordings inUse OBS Studio the cloud rather than leaving them lying around on your laptop confers a few advantages:
- You can access them easily from other devices
- You can use internal sharing functionalities — like Google’s built in sharing functional that inter-operates with other Gmail and Google Workspace accounts — to extend access but keep the video recording non-public-facing.
Use A Dedicated Tool
Such as Nimbus:
Recording private notes in video format can save time and effort relative to text and audio — while capturing more information for no extra effort. It’s a win-win from a productivity standpoint.
