How to Take Meeting Notes Effectively
If you’re hoping to effectively take notes during meetings, you need to be able to organize and record information in a manner that will be useful to you following the meeting. A set of well-written notes from meetings can help you recall past decisions, as well as what was discussed at future meetings.
There are many best practices to take notes, regardless of whether you are using either a digital or paper-based one. 1. Know what you need to keep in mind.
Taking the time to think about what is important in the meeting prior to going into it will help you focus on capturing the right information and not be distracted by other things on your mind. This can help you understand the reason behind the discussion so that you can make informed choices on how to approach the issue in the future.
2. If you can, write by hand.
Unlike typing, writing by hand forces you to pay attention and recollect the moment — research has shown that those who write notes with an analog pen have stronger conceptual understanding after meetings than those who write digital notes. If you can use notebooks, try the Cornell note-taking technique, which divides your notes into a left and an right column. The left column highlights the main ideas from the conference and the right column focuses on the details and key takeaways.
It is also possible to ask participants to share their thoughts during the meeting. This will help everyone feel like they are a part of the conversation and contribute to the conversation. Note down the action items at the end of each meeting and who is responsible.
