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Blanked on a deposition prep call and it cost me 3 hours of free time
I used to just skim my notes before a deposition and wing it during the call. That worked fine until about 6 months ago when I missed a key date in a lease dispute case and the client’s lawyer called me out on it. Now I spend 30 minutes the night before writing out a quick timeline on a notepad, even for simple cases. Has anyone else had to overhaul their prep routine after one embarrassing slip?
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diana_black1d ago
Oh man, I feel this. I'm a court reporter so I see this happen all the time and yeah, it's brutal when you get called out. I started making a one-page cheat sheet the night before too, with dates and names in big bold print at the top. It sounds dumb but highlighting the three most important facts in yellow makes me feel 10x more ready and I don't freeze up.
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mila_harris1d ago
Two hundred and thirty seven times I've done this trick for my kid's school presentations (yes, I counted, I'm weird like that). The yellow highlighter is genius because it catches your eye when you start panicking and scanning the page real fast. I actually use three different colors now for different categories, like green for people and pink for dates, which sounds extra but it works. The funniest part is that I've caught myself doing it for grocery lists too, highlighting "eggs" and "milk" like it's a legal document or something.
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Is it just me or does anyone else end up over-preparing for EVERYTHING after one bad moment? I had a similar thing happen at a family dinner where my uncle asked me about my grandma's birthday and I COMPLETELY blanked. Now I write down birthdays on a sticky note and stick it to my fridge for every single relative, even ones I talk to every week. Last week I found myself making a color-coded list of my pantry items with expiration dates highlighted in orange because I was so paranoid about forgetting something again. My wife thinks I've lost it but honestly the peace of mind is worth looking a little crazy.
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