Consulting: back into a client project in ten minutes, not a morning
Four clients, one head. A notebook per engagement keeps the brief, the meetings and the reasons together, and your own methods stay yours.
Pavel is a logistics consultant with four clients at any given time. Two weeks ago he spent three days with a furniture maker deciding whether to keep their warehouse in Lviv or move to a 3PL provider. Then he went to another client. Today at 14:00 the furniture maker calls, and at 13:20 Pavel opens the folder: eleven files, a spreadsheet with two tabs he does not remember making, and a photo of a whiteboard.
He knows he steered them away from 3PL. He does not remember why. It was something the finance director said about the contract term, and it was a good reason, and it is somewhere in the photo of the whiteboard.
Ten minutes instead of a morning
The version of Pavel who keeps a notebook per client opens one pinned note at 13:20: current question, date of the last meeting, link to the meeting note. The meeting note has four headings and the whiteboard photo attached, and under Decisions it says: 3PL ruled out for now, three-year minimum term, see finance director, 14 March.
He reads it in four minutes. The other six he spends on what he will actually say at 14:00. This is the whole value, and it is not dramatic: he comes back to a project as the person who left it, not as a stranger.
The Kharkiv client solved this already
Halfway through the call the furniture maker asks about a hybrid: keep the warehouse, outsource only the peak season. Pavel has done this before, for a client in Kharkiv two years ago. He half-remembers it. Second brain remembers it fully: his library note on peak-season outsourcing is linked to this client’s research section, with the reason on the link, both compare rent against 3PL fees per pallet.
He does not show the Kharkiv notebook to the furniture maker. He could not; it is not theirs to see. But the method is his, and it goes into their recommendation with a fresh calculation.
What he hands over and what he keeps
The engagement ends in May. The furniture maker gets the notebook: the recommendation, the meetings, the rejected 3PL option with the reason, and a last section on what to watch in six months. Pavel exports a PDF for the contract file and removes himself from their notebook.
What stays with him is the method, back in his library, now with one more real case attached to it. Four clients, one head, and the head no longer has to hold all of it.
You work alone or with one or two partners, and every client gets a slice of your week. The hard part is not the files. It is coming back after two weeks on another engagement and remembering why you steered this client away from option B. Below is how a consultant’s stack of notebooks is organised in Kartoteq, from the first call to the handover.
How the notebook is laid out
One stack for clients, one library for yourself
Make a stack called Clients and a notebook inside it for each engagement. Separately, keep a personal notebook called My methods: the checklist you use for every audit, the pricing template, the three questions you always ask on a first call. Client notebooks are shared; the library is not.
In each client notebook, switch on AI and write the goal in the client’s own words: “Decide whether to keep the warehouse in Lviv or move to a 3PL.” The interview asks what the client needs to decide, by when and who signs off. Sections appear: brief, meetings, research, recommendation. Add Handover now, even if it is empty; it is easier to fill as you go.
Pin a note at the top with the current question and the date of the last meeting. That note is what you read when you come back.
Write the meeting while the car is still warm
After each call, add one note to Meetings: date, who was there, what was decided, what is still open. Four headings, ten minutes. Attach the client’s spreadsheet or the photo of the whiteboard right there; the text in their PDF becomes searchable, so “contract term” will find the clause next month.
Link the meeting note to the recommendation it changes. “See 14 March: client ruled out 3PL on cost” is one internal link, and the backlink shows up on the meeting too. When the client changes their mind in May, both notes tell the story.
If you use the web clipper or forward an email into the notebook, still add your own line about why it matters. A source without a reason is a bookmark, and you have enough of those.
Let your old work find you
This is where Second brain earns its place. Ask it to analyse your library together with the client notebooks you have access to. It draws a graph: your warehouse checklist from two years ago sits next to this client’s research section, with a reason on the link, “both compare rent against 3PL fees per pallet.”
Manual links count too, and they cost no points. When you remember that the Kharkiv client solved the same problem, link the two notes by hand. Browsing the graph is free; the AI analysis shows an estimate before it runs.
The boundary holds in both directions. A link from your private method to a client notebook does not show your library to the client. And when an engagement ends and you leave their notebook, the connections that relied on it are reviewed, not quietly kept.
Hand over a notebook, not a folder of attachments
The recommendation is the result document. AI proposes edits with sources; you accept the ones that tighten a claim. Share it with the client in the view role, or send a read-only link to the one person who signs.
For handover, fill the last section: what was decided, what was rejected and why, what to watch in six months. Export the notebook as PDF or Markdown and give the client their copy. Then review access: remove yourself from what is now theirs, or keep view only if the contract says so.
What stays with you is the method, back in your library, now with one more link to a real case.
What is left when the project ends
A notebook you can open a year later and still understand: the sources, the discussions and the result, with the reason next to every decision. If the next project is similar, you start from here instead of from an empty page.
Where to go next
See how your notes are connectedFrom meeting notes to shared understanding
Start with one notebook.
The Personal plan is free: notes, files and search. AI and shared notebooks can be added later, when a project needs them.
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