I find that I can remember 3 timings before things get fuzzy for me. Each time I have 3 things to notate, I quickly enter them into my phone. It's not that suspect since they are usually either dropping something off at the table or clearing another thing, so the staff have walked away at the time you are taking any notes. The seating and ordering process is the hardest to catch. It gets easier with experience.
You will need a dining partner none-the-less for any of the fine dining restaurants, so definitely put them to use on food pics and bathroom visits. I personally don't like to the leave the table during the meal because than I have to play catch-up with anything that happened when I was gone.
I started and finished a dinner report last night in 2 hours while stopping to check emails, feed the cat take a few quick work calls. I'm not saying these assignments are for everyone, but if you cannot record and deliver the required timings, you probably are not the most detail oriented and organized shopper, since there are literally dozens of other shoppers doing these every night. Even if you don't like the payoff for the amount of work required, it's got an additional payoff in training you to be a better shopper for when a desired shop does come up!
Furthering Niner's point; Many of the restaurants in the NYC & LA area reimburse closer to $300-400. There's a dinner on the board in LA right now with $400 reimbursement....and the famous sushi place that has multiple locations offering $350. You can go above that if you take the hotel assignment for that restaurant brand, but that's about the hardest report that Coyle offers so I don't recommend it for the meek.
For what it's worth, a majority of my free time last month was spent on Coyle reports but my reimbursements for June are over $7,000, and I profited a little over $300 in fees, plus this summer I will end up re-qualifying for platinum status with an airline, and earn numerous free hotel nights. My reimbursements match my career income in some months, so there is value in being able to take these assignments, even if they are a PITA.