Learn how to organize meeting notes to look back on if you have a lingering question or need to remember what the final decision on a topic was. By Mara Calvello • July 13, 2021 • 6 min read
You power on your work computer on a Monday morning. A fresh cup of coffee is beside you. You’re ready to win the day.
And then you realize your day is full of meetings. You’re not alone, in fact, there are roughly 11 million meetings held each day, so the chances are good that at least one of those is on your calendar. When you want to make the most of these meetings and ensure you and your team remembers the key points that were discussed, it’s essential that you not only know how to take meeting notes, but that you also know how to organize them after the meeting comes to a close so they’re helpful to all attendees.
Jotting down key points during an important meeting is crucial. But what good are those scribbled notes if you can’t decipher them later on? Without a system for organizing meeting notes, critical action items, decisions, and insights risk slipping through the cracks.
This guide will walk you through proven techniques to transform your raw meeting notes into well-structured, readily accessible records. Follow these best practices and you’ll extract maximum value from every meeting while keeping stakeholders aligned.
Why Well-Organized Notes Matter
Comprehensive organized meeting notes provide a multitude of benefits
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Alignment – Keeps all attendees and wider team on the same page regarding outcomes,
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Clarity – Resolves ambiguity around next steps and responsibilities,
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Focus – Focuses follow-on efforts on key priorities and objectives.
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Accessibility – Allows those unable to attend to quickly get up to speed.
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Accountability – Creates a record of tasks assigned to specific people.
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Continuity – Maintains continuity between meetings by documenting past discussions.
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Analysis – Enables tracking team progress and activity over time.
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Legal record – Provides documentation to refer back to if needed.
In short, detailed notes lead to alignment, execution, and productivity. Haphazard notes lead to misalignment, frustration, and wasted time.
Best Practices for Organizing Meeting Notes
Follow these tips to keep your meeting notes organized and impactful:
Listen Actively During the Meeting
Stay engaged during the discussions and synthesize information mentally as it’s being presented. This will make it easier to cluster related items when organizing notes after the fact.
Capture Notes Digitally
Type notes directly into a digital doc rather than jotting down paper notes that need transcribing later. Digital notes are searchable, shareable, and enable real-time editing by multiple people.
Use Templates for Consistent Structure
Leverage premade note templates with sections for agenda items, action steps, questions, etc. The structure will guide your note taking during and after meetings.
Label Notes with Relevant Metadata
Include key details like meeting name, date, location, attendees, etc. This metadata makes notes easier to scan and contextualize later on.
Record Action Items Separately
Designate an obvious place in the template to log any action items. Call them out visually so they don’t get lost in the narrative.
Prioritize Clarity Over Completeness
Don’t try to capture every single detail. Focus on recording the most relevant points and decisions accurately. Some background can be excluded.
Clean Up Notes Promptly After Meetings
Schedule time immediately after meetings to clean up and organize notes while the discussions are still fresh.
Share Notes with Relevant Stakeholders
Distribute finalized notes to all attendees and anyone else needing to stay in the loop regarding what transpired.
Helpful Frameworks for Organizing Notes
When compiling your notes, use an organizing framework that fits your preferences:
Chronological
Structure notes sequentially the way agenda items and discussions unfolded. Best for long meetings covering multiple complex topics.
Grouping by Topic
Cluster notes into logical categories or under relevant headings that reflect key subject matters covered. Helpful for meetings that jump between topics.
Outcome-Based
Organize notes based on types of meeting outcomes like decisions made, action items assigned, questions raised, etc. Surfaces the most critical information.
Summary-Focused
Lead with an executive summary calling out the most important takeaways, conclusions, and next steps from the meeting. Support with more detailed notes.
Mind Maps
For visual thinkers, create a mind map showing connections between concepts and highlights using branches, colors, and diagrams.
Helpful Tools for Organizing Notes Digitally
To optimize your digital note-taking process, consider these helpful technology options:
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Note-taking apps like Evernote or OneNote for collecting notes in a centralized workspace with formatting capabilities.
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Transcription services like Otter.ai that can listen to recordings and produce transcripts to supplement your manual notes.
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Templates in Google Docs or Word to establish a consistent structure for your notes and prompt you to capture key details.
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Collaboration platforms like Slack or Teams to store notes digitally while allowing colleagues to access and contribute.
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Project management software like Asana or Trello to connect notes directly to tasks and workflows.
Template for Organized Meeting Notes
For quick reference during your next meeting, use this high-level template:
Meeting Name & Purpose
Brief background. What goal brought you together?
Date, Time, Location
When and where the meeting took place.
Attendees
List of all participants.
Agenda Items & Discussion Notes
Notes following the flow of the agenda.
Key Takeaways & Decisions
Most critical information and conclusions.
Action Items
Tasks assigned with owners and due dates noted.
Open Questions
Big unresolved questions raised.
Other Notable Outcomes
Any other relevant points worth capturing.
Next Steps & Follow Ups
Any obvious next moves based on the discussions.
Example Organized Meeting Notes
To see this template in action, here is an example set of organized meeting notes:
Meeting: Weekly Client Check-In
Purpose: Review project status and address open issues
Date & Time: Monday January 9, 2023 at 2:00pm EST
Location: Video call
Attendees:
- Amanda (AE): Account Executive
- Michael (PM): Project Manager
- Chris (Client): Client Project Lead
Agenda & Discussion Notes
- Project timeline review
- On track overall
- Waiting on final website assets from Client
- Targeting launch by 1/30 pending assets
- New scoping request
- Client wants to consider adding a chatbot feature
- PM to draft timeline and cost estimate for Client by next week
- Outstanding invoice
- Client: Apologies for delay, will process ASAP
- AE: No problem, let me know if any issues!
Key Takeaways & Decisions
- Website launch still on pace for 1/30 if assets delivered asap
- PM will assess and propose plan for adding chatbot feature
Action Items
- Client: Send final website assets to PM by Wednesday 1/11
- PM: Scope timeline and costs for potential chatbot addition, draft proposal
- Client: Process outstanding invoice by end of week
Open Questions
- How quickly can chatbot be added if scoped and approved? Can it also make 1/30 launch?
Other Notable Outcomes
- Overall continued positive partnership
- Client renewed commitment to project success
Next Steps
- Schedule next check-in call in two weeks
- PM and Client to connect 1:1 regarding asset transfer and chatbot estimate
Getting More Out of Your Meeting Notes
Beyond core documentation, transform your organized notes into further assets:
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Status reports – Compile highlights regularly to update stakeholders not in the meetings.
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Training materials – Turn recurring advice and solutions into internal training guides.
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Process documents – Convert decisions into new protocols and workflows.
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Content library – Save notes in a shared drive colleagues can reference on demand.
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FAQ list – Identify common questions raised and build a Knowledge Base article.
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Newsletter content – Repurpose key points for internal communications.
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Blog articles – Expand specific note items into thought leadership content.
Don’t let your meetings lose momentum due to scattered, disorganized notes. Follow these best practices to keep everyone aligned and engaged. Your future self will thank you the next time you need to recall an important discussion point or confirm who committed to which action item.
3 Sync your meeting notes to your calendar
The alternative is simple: keep your notes organized by syncing any and all meetings notes into a calendar instead.
When an organization utilizes a tool like Fellow, meeting attendees benefit from a collaborative approach to taking meeting notes and accessing them afterward.
Fellow acts as a single source of truth for every meeting, giving your team elevated transparency and accountability while never forgetting what was discussed or agreed upon. Once the session is adjourned and the notes are complete, the notes can be sent with a click of a button, via email or Slack, so that everyone has access to the same information.
It’s incredibly beneficial to have items like the meeting notes, meeting minutes, and even the agenda organized in the calendar event. Not only will everyone know precisely where to find the information they need, but it makes the details sharable, searchable, and actionable. No matter if you’re meeting with someone in your department, a different department, or even someone at another, the notes can be shared at a moment’s notice.
Pro tip: Fellow’s Chrome extension helps avoid multitasking by bringing your meeting notes and agendas into Google Meet and Google Calendar. This extension acts as a single source of truth for every meeting, giving your team elevated transparency and accountability while never forgetting what was discussed or agreed upon. During the meeting, attendees can take of advantage of the browser extension and Zoom app to access meeting notes right inside of Google Meet calls and your Google Calendar to supercharge team meetings and 1-on-1 without leaving the tools that you are already using. Say goodbye to multiple, distracting tabs!
1 Stop taking individual meeting notes
There’s no I in team – so when it comes to taking meeting notes, get everyone involved!
The attendees of the meeting should work together to collaborate on the meeting notes. This can come in handy if not everyone is on the same page with a takeaway from the meeting. It can also help ensure every last detail is covered since if it’s only one person’s job, some points could fall through the cracks.
Additionally, not everyone has the same meeting note-taking style, so if one person prefers to write their notes using lists or bulleted points, and another creates notes that look like outlines, you’ll get the best of both worlds.
When all of the meeting attendees come together to share notes, everyone gets the benefit of:
- Being on the same page with all pertinent information
- Knowing which team member is responsible for which task
- Having the answers to something they may have missed
- Getting access to details when they have been forgotten
- Finding a way to organize the information that works for everyone
Did you know? 51% of people are still recording meeting notes individually instead of using a collaborative document. As a result, most teams lack one source of truth for decisions, action items, and outcomes.
How to Take Notes for Work | Note-taking Tutorial for Professionals
How do you take notes in a meeting?
Some of the most common note-taking methods include: Cornell method: In the Cornell method, your notes take the form of two columns: one small column on the left side and a larger column on the right. The left column highlights key ideas from the meeting, while the right column drills down into the details of the key ideas.
Why should you take notes during a meeting?
This will accomplish two important things: Your meeting agenda is the best environment for taking meeting notes because you’ve already outlined all the topics, key points, questions, and goals in one place. Especially when you’re facilitating the meeting and taking notes, it’s a challenge to juggle both activities .
How do you organize a meeting?
Conversation will naturally shift from one topic to the next, so catching the key idea on the left, and drilling down finer details on the right can help you stay organized. Outline method: Ideally, your team shares the meeting agenda beforehand. If they do, use that as an outline for your notes. List those key points out based on the agenda.
How do I make better meeting notes?
The easiest way to do this is with a meeting notes template —a simply formatted document that helps guide you through the note-taking process. Better meeting notes start with better meetings. We’ve put together a downloadable template to use in your next meeting here. Manage Projects like the Pros. Try Planio.
