How to improve my capacity to follow my advisor's instructions during research? I am a Computer Science undergraduate doing a research project in Bioinformatics. I know my weaknesses, especially that I am not good at speaking, listening, and interacting with people in all social context. Until now, this wasn't a problem, I hardly paid attention in class, studied by myself directly from books, and got excellent grades. But in my current position, I have come to understand that I have to improve some social skills if I want to advance. Right now, it's plainly difficult to me to follow the rationale among two or more phrases if I don't see them on paper and this characteristic is causing problems because my advisor's instruction are mostly oral. 

Although my professor praises my ability to do math and program, he complains about how I easily lose track of the instructions. This is a true problem, specially when processing biological data (one thing is that the program works, the other is that it makes biological sense and I am not yet conversant in biological background). This situation is starting to raise problems with my advisor and I have to find a solution before everything gets worst.

Note: I take notes. This is the most logical, straightforward solution, but I never developed the ability to take good notes as I didn't like attending classes. I'm working to improve this skill, but I the problem of connecting orally communicated ideas effectively remains.

As a summary, I have to figure out how to follow the incredible amount of oral information passed to me, even if I have never built this ability.
I've found that taking notes, even point form, is really helpful.

Even if you were good at understanding oral instructions, taking meeting notes would be useful.

They let you go back to things you didn't have much time to think about at the time later on.

You could also email your supervisor a summary of your understanding of the meeting and your plans until the next meeting, so that he has a chance to correct/clarify in writing any misunderstandings, or refocus your priorities.

As for the problem of connecting oral instructions, you should take every opportunity to confirm your understanding of the main points discussed so far in the meeting. Rephrase what you just heard back to your supervisor. If there is a definition you don't know, either ask right away, or jot down the word to ask about later.