03/09/2026
The Question Corner
Here’s a question you’ve never been asked:
How often do you have flat-head moments? You know, it’s an hour or so after a meeting and you figuratively, or literally, smack your forehead with your hand and think, “Now, what was it they said?”
The average American forgets 50% of what they hear in a meeting before the meeting ends; they forget 70% within 24 hours, and 90% within a week.
The same numbers apply for doctor’s office visits—which can have serious impacts on health.
Those statistics can make for a lot of flat-head moments.
A great way to counter information escape is with The Question Corner.
First, don’t ever go into an important in-person or online meeting, phone call, or back-and-forth text/email conversation without something to write with and something to write on. Capturing crucial information on your phone or computer or with AI can work. But, in a key study by Muller and Oppenheimer, noted in the Harvard Business Review, it shows writing to be the best way to implant information in our brains. (And, who has time to read those AI notes, anyway?!)
Next, in the upper left-hand corner of whatever you’re taking notes on simply list seven questions:
What?
Why?
Who?
Where?
When?
How?
How Much?
Why the left-hand corner? Because our culture reads left-to-right so it’s the first place our eyes go when we see almost any type of document.
And, you stack the questions. Don’t write them out on a line. When we read we don’t see/read every word. Our eyes jump what we determine to be less important words and we try to see only the words that matter. Writing the questions on a line makes them too easy to jump over.
Here’s another important question: Why these specific words/questions? Because they point us to the crucial information in any situation or plan.
What? What is the goal? What do we need to make sure gets done? What is the one thing that, if we get it done, we’re closer to success?
Why? What is our motivation/reason? Why are we doing whatever this is in the first place?
Who? Who is involved in this? With whom do we need to connect? Who else might help us?
When? Is time an issue? Is there a timeline and/or deadline?
Where? Does location matter? Where does the event happen?
How? How will this get done? Does process matter? If we can’t get it done the usual way is there another way?
How Much? In our society, when people hear How Much? they almost always think, Money. The How Much? could be focusing on financial cost, or Time (How much time will this take?), Energy (How Much physical or mental effort will be required? Do we need help?), or Ego (Are you attempting something new that might make you a little—or, a lot—uncomfortable? How can we increase confidence?).
The Question Corner is an outstanding tool for battling information escape.
And, no more flat-head moments.
