My approach to taking notes in meetings • Hacker News Board

Re: My approach to taking notes in meetings

#61

Post by Brajeshwar » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 5:08 AM UTC

I love taking meeting notes on pen/paper, and my colleagues, clients love them too. I used to write mostly text -- bullet points, keywords, figures, etc.

I started moving more towards sketches that depicts the idea, relationships, and the likes. I have suggested the books by Dan Roam[1] earlier and I'd still recommend them today.

Today, for instance, if I'm in a meeting for a product feature; by the end of the meeting, my notes are usually the starting point for the product team (designers, engineers) to get started.

1. https://www.danroam.com

Re: My approach to taking notes in meetings

#62

Post by hnedeotes » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 7:01 AM UTC

puchatek wrote: post #48

bluGill wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tell myself that, but in truth the main value in taking notes is it forces me to pay attention. When I'm not daydreaming about how I would make the last point in a different way (thus missing the current one), or thinking about whatever project I'm doing at home I get a lot more out of the talk. I sometimes pretend I'm translating to Spanish (I don't know near enough Spanish to do this, but in my mind it is okay to…

Muy cleverito

When the CEO asks what you think about it, just go

  Chico, this no bueno!

Re: My approach to taking notes in meetings

#63

Post by j7ake » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 9:22 AM UTC

I imagine the act of writing a summary of the conversation rather than verbatim allows the brain to do some work to understand the gist of the meeting, which will help recall even without revisiting the notes.

Re: My approach to taking notes in meetings

#64

Post by lowdose » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 9:53 AM UTC

Record everything, voice to text every conversation.

Re: My approach to taking notes in meetings

#65

Post by marcyb5st » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 11:00 AM UTC

logicalmonster wrote: post #12

I think every brain might be wired differently and a different approach might work better for some people. But if I'm trying to make notes in a meeting, I can't listen to a speaker argue some nuanced point in a meeting while furiously trying to jot things down. An approach that works for me is to have the meeting and try and pay undivided attention to it, then have 5-10 uninterrupted minutes at the end while everythi…

Yes! I agree!

My way to avoid that is: - avoid taking notes until a topic is exhausted - be the "obnoxious guy" that always says: "so, recapping blah blah blah". - If everyone agrees to my recap I write that down.

Re: My approach to taking notes in meetings

#66

Post by r00fus » Wed, Jun 30, 2021, 4:34 PM UTC

deeblering4 wrote: post #54

In my opinion note taking should be a collaborative effort. All members of the meeting sharing a notepad together, and ideally even the meeting agenda is populated with headings before the meeting starts, allowing everyone to add notes below each heading (and keep it moving along and on task) After approaching meetings this way I rarely need for my own personal notes. Just a personal reminder/todo list. Shared notes…

Very good point. Shared screen note-taking over Zoom/conf while discussing the meeting subject also leads to better meeting engagement.

At that point the meeting leader simply facilitates and people assign themselves tasks as the agenda is discussed and notes are taken/shared.

If those notes also happen to be some collaborative app (e.g. Google sheets) that allows attendees/team members to view/filter their own data it's even better.

Re: My approach to taking notes in meetings

#67

Post by naveen99 » Thu, Jul 01, 2021, 12:02 PM UTC

why are meetings special ? If you have a thought that you want to revisit later, but think may not remember to, put it on a list. If you read something on the internet you want to revisit later; bookmark it, or put it on a list. Do the same with meetings. If you hear something worth putting on a list, do it.

Re: My approach to taking notes in meetings

#68

Post by FerretFred » Thu, Jul 01, 2021, 12:49 PM UTC

Don't do as I did... I decided to use my iPad Mini with pencil to take notes at an important meeting, and the handwriting recognition worked really well. However, just to be sure/safe, I decided I'd also switch on the voice recorder app as well. Unfortunately, at the end of the meeting I had my notes, but also 30 minutes of pencil-tapping noises with barely-discernable voices in the background. I won't do that again...

Re: My approach to taking notes in meetings

#69

Post by boredwithlife » Thu, Jul 01, 2021, 6:47 PM UTC

Sounds like my approach of ignoring the meeting while doodling.

Re: My approach to taking notes in meetings

#70

Post by marcind » Tue, Jul 06, 2021, 2:21 PM UTC

zhte415 wrote: post #59

Take a picture of the whiteboard at the end of a constructive discussion and email that to everyone. The absolute worst thing is someone with a laptop struggling to type everything down, or everything they feel like transcribing, and not participating in anything.

...or share that board with ShareTheBoard (and let everyone save it themselves) :)