Use a real placement slice instead of planning for every possibility
Choose the class or small group you observe most often. Add the students who come up in your mentor conversations. Save brief notes tied to instruction, participation, feedback, or support.
That is usually enough to tell whether the workflow will help without turning setup into its own project.
Bring better evidence into mentor meetings
Mentor conversations go better when you can point to actual moments. A note about how a student responded to prompting or how a group handled directions is more useful than a broad impression you are trying to reconstruct later.
Dodl helps here because Notes Explorer lets you reopen the thread before the meeting instead of relying on memory.
Keep the habit light enough for the placement calendar
Placement weeks already have planning, observation, and reflection built into them. Your note system has to fit inside that reality. Save the note quickly, review it later, and keep only the information that helps you teach, reflect, or prepare for the next mentor conversation.