How can I take detailed notes efficiently and accurately?

I’m terrible at writing notes, especially if I have to do it quickly, and tend to miss out important facts or get caught up in too many details. I also spell terribly when writing quickly and often miss out words altogether, it’s ridiculous!

I’ve been watching a documentary on Kon Tiki and fortunately I can pause it to write down important details (and the unimportant ones too because I can’t seem to be able to tell the difference). It gets very old very fast however, having to pause it every two minutes to write things down; so I was wondering if any of the fluther had good techniques for note-taking?

Short of learning short-hand, of course. Although I might give that a go at some-point anyway.