Taking accurate, concise notes in meetings is no small feat. It’s hard to capture everything that’s valuable—people talk fast, it’s sometimes hard to tell what’s important in the moment, and the meeting might jump around between different topics.
This was discussed in a recent Reddit thread in the r/projectmanagement subreddit. Taking notes and distributing them to the right people after the fact is often a big part of a project manager’s role.
Even if they have a coordinator they can lean on, I’ve never met a project manager without the necessary organization, prioritization, and decision-making skills for this.
I’ll cover some solutions to make note-taking easier, as explained by project managers in the thread.
Why Is Effective Note-Taking So Difficult?
Note-taking often falls to the project manager, although whether it should is a matter of some debate (more on that later). Here’s how this is summed up by the original poster of the thread:
How do you take notes in meetings?
byu/Tronracer inprojectmanagement
This is doubly difficult if you’re also leading the meeting—you need to balance this with keeping track of what’s been said and what the action items are. However, there are a few solutions to make this process easier.
Solution 1: Use an AI Tool
There are lots of tools that use artificial intelligence to assist with note-taking. Using one of these tools can completely take this task off of your plate. These tools are also getting more advanced all the time, so it’s only getting easier to automate this process.
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Otter.ai isn’t the only option, either.
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Important: You should check your company’s AI and meeting recording policies. Many industries are subject to regulations due to privacy and security concerns. You could also get into trouble for violating NDAs or other agreements.
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If you aren’t able to use AI, you might still be able to record or automatically transcribe your meetings (again, check your organization’s policies) to supplement your notes after the fact with any information you might have missed.
What you want to avoid at all costs is transcribing or recording the meeting and then going back to make notes from it after the fact.
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Solution 2: Use Microsoft OneNote
If you can’t use AI, this is your next best option.
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It’s important to have an agenda in place for the meeting. This will not only ensure you stay on track with what you need to cover, but it will also make taking notes easier. Add your notes directly to the relevant section of the agenda—this will help you more easily keep up with the flow of the discussion.
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You can easily integrate OneNote with your email to make distributing your meeting notes even easier (once you’ve cleaned them up).
Solution 3: Agenda-Based Notes
This is similar to the above, but it’s a little more difficult without OneNote.
Here’s the basic process:
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It’s also worth sharing your screen during the meeting with the agenda and your notes, unless there’s something else that needs to be displayed (e.g. deliverables awaiting feedback). This saves you from having to go back and confirm notes with other attendees—they’ll be able to see your notes and clarify in the moment.
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But remember: This will still require some cleanup before you can send the notes out.
4 Other Note-Taking Tips
Here are a few other tips and tricks from the thread that can help you streamline your process.
Prioritize Your Meetings
Don’t treat every meeting with the same level of attention—prioritize accordingly.
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Summarize For The Group
Before leaving the meeting or moving on to a new agenda item, summarize your understanding for the group to make sure everyone agrees and is on the same page.
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Don’t Be The Note Taker
If you can, designate someone else as the notetaker so you can focus on driving the meeting.
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Here’s some ideas for who should take notes instead:
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Try A RAID Log
Despite some debate around this, RAID logs can be an effective note-taking tool. Make sure to create one that’s separate from your project RAID log (typically used for risk management), and keep in mind that you’ll need to reformat your notes before sending them out to the necessary recipients.
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