Feeding your memory, how to write your notes

By Phrenel Lawson · Published on July 14, 2026

You have no keywords to learn. Write the way you would tell a colleague, and Verbasil sorts it for you. This guide just shows what a useful note looks like, so your memory hands you the right things at the right moment.

The principle in one sentence

The more alive what you write is (in progress, not yet settled), the more your memory has to work with.

A finished, tidy document (a summary, a well-organized report) remembers, but triggers nothing: there is nothing left to decide or follow up on. Your everyday notes, on the other hand (what is moving, what is dragging, what you are hesitating to settle), are exactly the raw material Verbasil turns into reminders, decisions and trends.

So don't hold back from writing rough. A line jotted after a call beats a polished report once a month.

The 4 kinds of notes (with spoken examples)

You don't have to pick the category: it shows in the way you write. Here are the cues.

1. What you observe (context, signals)

An observed fact, a constraint, a customer's feedback, a goal, some info about your project or team. This feeds the deep memory and surfaces trends over time.

• "The client thought the tool was great, but 49 dollars a month is out of budget for them."
• "Sophie owns the whole roadmap, Julien handles the infra."
• "Our goal for the quarter: reach 15,000 in monthly recurring revenue."
• "I noticed people drop off right at the import step."

2. What you need to do (tasks, follow-ups, deadlines)

A clear commitment, a follow-up you are waiting on, a date not to miss. This lands in your operational tracker.

• "I'll send the meeting notes to Paul by the end of the afternoon." (a commitment)
• "I'm waiting on Thomas about the contract, he was supposed to write back Monday." (a follow-up)
• "The investor deck needs to be ready before next Friday." (a deadline, the date is worked out for you)

The cue: an action verb ("I'll", "we need to", "remember to"), a date, or someone's name as owner.

3. What you need to decide (open questions)

A trade-off not yet settled: there is a doubt, a debate, or several options on the table. Verbasil keeps it warm under "to decide", so it doesn't slip through.

• "To decide: do we build the Excel import ourselves, or plug in a third-party tool?"
• "We need to settle the annual plan price: 99 or 120?"
• "Should we pause the campaign until the beta feedback is in?"

The cue: an alternative ("or", "versus"), an uncertainty ("to decide", "we need to choose").

4. What you have decided (settled calls)

A choice already made and validated. It becomes the project's reference history: the record of why you made a given call, findable later.

• "Meeting of 07/08: we approved hiring Thomas as Product Designer."
• "We decided to drop v1 and put everything into v2."

The cue: the past tense ("we decided to", "agreed", "approved").

The cheat sheet

The small extra that changes everything: context

Often, a note's meaning is obvious in your head but not on paper. Add one line for what is implicit: who or what you are talking about, and why it matters.

• Instead of: "Doesn't want Nice."
• Write: "Real estate client (looking for a flat): doesn't want Nice, prefers the hinterland. Follow up with 2 listings."

Same after a call: say who, the topic, and what is left to do. That context is what lets your memory answer you precisely later ("what was I supposed to do for this client again?").

Don't worry, you can't break anything

• If a note is vague or reads like plain chatter, Verbasil stays cautious: it keeps it as an observation rather than inventing a fake task. Nothing is lost, nothing clutters your boards.
• You always validate what enters your memory, and you can correct or reclassify afterwards.

So write freely. The worst that can happen is a note waiting quietly in your history.