ACROBAT FOR BUSINESS | 6-MINUTE READ
Meeting notes vs minutes: How to take good notes.
Learn how effective meeting notes can help your team succeed.
Content as a Service v2 - b2b - Wednesday, September 25, 2024 at 15:13
Meeting notes are informal records of meeting highlights. They give participants a clear understanding of what must happen next and who is responsible. Unlike meeting minutes, meeting notes aren’t an official company record.
Meetings are only as valuable as the actions taken after them. If no one remembers what was discussed or completes tasks proposed during the meeting, the meeting might not have occurred. By taking meeting notes, you can help yourself and your team have a point of reference for the decisions you make and the assignments you need to complete.
What are meeting notes?
Meeting notes are an informal record of the most important points of a meeting. They are short, sweet, and to the point. They capture your thoughts and impressions alongside specific details about agenda items. There is no official meeting notes format. Anyone can take meeting notes, and multiple people in the meeting may take notes simultaneously.
Notes help every person in a meeting walk away with a clear idea of what needs to happen next. They also create an easily accessible place to refresh memory and share ideas with your team. Use your meeting notes to highlight key issues, track projects’ progress, document decisions, and assign responsibilities. If a team member can’t attend a meeting, you can share your notes to catch them up.
If you think notes aren’t necessary, it might surprise you to learn how quickly you forget information. Research suggests that humans forget learned knowledge within hours. You may hear this phenomenon called “The curve of forgetting.” According to the curve, one day after a meeting, you will have already forgotten 40% of the information discussed. The next day, that number increases to 60%. Within a week, you will have forgotten nearly all of the details of your meeting.
Remember, memories may fail, but notes don’t.
Use meeting notes during one-on-ones with team members, brainstorming sessions, and informal team meetings.
How are meeting notes different than minutes?
Both meeting notes and meeting minutes aim to document what your team discusses in a meeting. However, meeting minutes act as the official record of the meeting for your company. They are more formal and follow a standard meeting minutes template. They may include specific and in-depth details on agenda items. They also include who attended the meeting, who was absent, when the meeting began and ended, and how attendees voted on the issues. Minutes do not include personal opinions or commentary.
Meeting minutes are the responsibility of a designated person who is asked beforehand to take them. This role may be assigned to a secretary or assistant or to a meeting attendee.
Use meeting minutes for formal meetings, such as board meetings, project updates with clients, and any time you think it may be helpful to have legal documentation of a discussion.
How to take meeting notes.
If you’re wondering how to take good meeting notes, it may comfort you to know that there isn’t one correct way. Different people will have different approaches that work for them.
No matter your method, keep this principle in mind: the best notes are high comprehension and low effort. If you make the note-taking process too difficult, you won’t do it. And, if your notes are too hard to understand, they won’t be helpful for you or your team.
Use these tips to learn how to take meeting notes for any type of meeting.
Choose your medium.
You can take notes digitally or by hand. Many people choose to type notes on a computer, tablet, or smartphone. If you select this method, be sure to silence notifications and close other windows to minimize distraction. Others prefer to take notes by hand. If you choose to handwrite your notes during the meeting, consider transcribing them afterward into a digital format. Using Acrobat for business to create a PDF of your notes makes them easier to store and share.
Organize.
Since there isn’t a standard format for meeting notes, decide ahead of time how you want to organize your thoughts. You can adapt a meeting minutes template to fit your needs or use a specific note-taking method:
- Box method. This method is a good option if you’re more of a visual learner or like to doodle to keep your focus. Create boxes for the different topics in your meeting, and fill in the information relevant to each topic in that box.
- Cornell method. This method makes it easy to scan notes for main ideas. Divide your paper into three vertical sections. From left to right, the sections contain main notes, keywords, and summaries. Take your notes in the left column during the meeting. After the meeting is over, write keywords in the middle column to make it easy to identify where certain topics are covered in the document. The summary column on the right is a place to record main takeaways and action items.
- Outlining method. Write down the main ideas of the meeting from your agenda. Under each main idea, use bullet points and numbered lists to record information.
- Slide method. If your meeting centers on a presentation, ask the presenter beforehand if you can have a copy of their slides. You can then take your notes directly on the slide deck as you follow along.
- Mind-mapping method. This method is also useful for visual learners. Create a mind map of the meeting by choosing a central idea from the agenda. Then, draw branches from this central idea to connect to each other as the meeting progresses. Mind maps can help you visually size how different discussions, decisions, and tasks affect each other.
Avoid transcription.
Meeting notes aren’t meant to be a transcript. You don’t have to write down everything that is said word for word. Focus on being present in the meeting. Write down the main ideas, key takeaways, and action items.
Use artificial intelligence.
If you’re meeting virtually, AI can summarize the proceedings for you. Tools like Acrobat AI Assistant automatically create meeting summaries and identify action items from meetings in Microsoft Teams and Zoom. AI meeting notes save your team time from sifting through extensive details, and they highlight the most essential points.
Meeting notes FAQs.
How do you write a meeting note?
There isn’t one right way to write meeting notes. Since these notes are for your reference, you should find the format and organization style that works best for you. Whether you take your notes digitally or by hand, take time after the meeting to polish them and highlight the most important points and action items.
What are notes after a meeting called?
Notes shared after a meeting are often called recaps or summaries. You may also hear notes referred to as meeting minutes. However, notes only qualify as minutes if they are the company’s official record of the meeting and follow the formal minutes format.
What are the 4 A’s of taking meeting notes?
There are actually eight As related to meeting notes. The first four As help you remember what to include in your meeting notes:
- Agenda. What did you discuss during the meeting?
- Attendance. Who was present for the meeting?
- Action items. What does each attendee need to do after the meeting?
- Agreements. What did your team decide during the meeting?
The second set of four As reminds you why meeting notes are valuable:
- Accuracy. Notes keep teams accurate. If there are disputes about what happened in a meeting, notes can resolve them.
- Action. Meeting notes ensure that action items are recorded and acted upon. They help keep teams accountable.
- Attention. Taking meeting notes helps participants pay attention to the meeting and actively engage in discussions.
- Association. Properly stored meeting notes provide a written record and timeline of projects, business decisions, and company growth.
How do you take good notes from a meeting?
Aim to come to your meeting prepared to take notes. You can prepare by:
- Reviewing the agenda
- Getting a good night’s rest the night before
- Having a snack before the meeting begins
- Bringing a water bottle
- Minimizing distraction from devices
During the meeting, actively participate. Use your notes to help you focus instead of hyper-focusing on your notes.
Practice makes perfect. The more you take meeting notes, the better at taking notes you will become.
How can you use meeting notes to build a knowledge base?
Meeting notes contain valuable information for yourself and your team. Using your notes to build a knowledge base that you can refer back to regularly makes them even more valuable. Try creating a searchable collection of information from your meeting notes by storing them in a central location.
This could be a shared team drive or a single document where you add and organize key points from your notes after each meeting. This knowledge base helps you learn from past experiences, avoid repeating mistakes, and encourages continuous learning from your entire team.
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Meeting notes vs. minutes: How to take notes | Acrobat for business
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