When you land in a new role, you face two jobs at once: the one you were hired to do and the one of getting up to speed. The first instinct is to grab every doc, link and slide deck—but most of it ends up as a growing pile of unread PDFs. Meetings become another blur of jargon and acronyms, leaving you with notes you can’t decipher later. As questions stack up, you feel more behind, not less. The trick is to sort incoming information into three clear buckets: facts, processes and concepts. Facts break down further into “must-know” details you keep in working memory (think core purpose, service-level agreements, key data flows) and reference facts you look up only when needed (error codes, server names, publisher series flags). For the must-know facts, keep a running list at the top of your notebook or digital note and review it daily. For reference facts, build a personal index of links and contacts so you never waste time hunting. Processes are the how-tos: how you commit code, run a billing cycle, handle a customer ticket. Instead of transcribing every step, learn them by doing. If no documented SOP exists, follow the current workflow first and improve it later, once you understand the system. Concepts—how ideas and components relate—need a different approach: build simple diagrams or mind maps that show relationships and dependencies. That way you’ll see not just isolated facts or steps, but how the whole machine runs.