The best way to take notes in meetings

28th January 2025

The outcomes we want from meetings are:

  • To make decisions; and/or
  • To agree actions – who is doing what, by when

So, when we are making notes in meetings, these are the two most important things to document.

The easiest/quickest way to do this is to have a template which looks like this.

Decisions made

  •  
  •  
  •  

 Actions agreed

Who

What

When

     
     
     
     
     
     

 And use it as follows:

  1. At the start of your meeting, someone opens this blank template
  2. During the meeting, they populate it every time a decision or action is agreed
  3. As soon as the meeting finishes, they copy/paste this now-completed template, and share it with everyone

For point #2 – to make it as easy as possible for the note-taker – it’s usually better to agree the decisions/actions after each agenda item.  So, don’t save them all until the end – they’ll be forgotten.  Instead, after each item, say “So what are our decisions/actions?”

And that’s it. Super-easy. Super-quick. Super-effective.

Action Point

For your first meeting today:

  • Decide who will be the note-taker
  • They complete and circulate the template as above…
  • … and then, of course, hold everyone to account for doing their actions!

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