A Method for Taking Notes During A Meeting

A few folks who have seen my note taking technique have noted it, and seemed to like it, so I thought I’d share it.

Below please find an example of the note taking technique.

Example notes for Project Morpheus

The technique is focused on the common situation where you are invited to a meeting with people who you do not know, some of whom attend on the phone and some of whom attend in person.

In this scenario, I make a little picture, with a rectangle representing the table and circles indicating each of the chairs around the table. When folks go around and introduce themselves, I try to write their names into the circles and annotate each circle with their functional role. Generally, I’ll miss some of the names, which I’ll add later if someone mentions their name. In the table itself, I’ll draw a phone, and then list the folks who are attending via phone and their roles.

This exercise helps me both identify who is going to do what by when in my notes and address people by their name during the meeting.

Beneath the outline of who is attending the meeting, I’ll add the date and the title of the meeting so I can know later which meeting I was in when I took the notes.

The lines with a question mark next to them are questions I’d like to ask during the meeting or questions I’d like to research the answer to after the meeting. The lines I annotate with a star will often become action items for the next follow-up meeting.

Based on the sample notes I’ve included, the details of the subsequent meeting request would look something like this.

Minutes from Last Meeting

We all agreed to revisit who will go on the mission at our next meeting.

Action Items

• John will watch “The Matrix” to get the references made during the prior meeting.
• John will decide whether to take the red or blue pill.
• John will schedule a meeting to follow-up regarding pill choice.
• Pat will schedule another call to brief us on “Neo”.

If I need to, I’ll also create text files to note specific things I learned or things to keep track of, and I’ll put them in a folder created for the project or meeting series.