Capturing Meeting Notes.

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(17 posts) (13 voices)

Started 1 year ago by knyghtmaire
Latest reply from markS
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knyghtmaire
Member

I try to document nearly everything. Since my job is an ADD dream job, and I am on no less then 10 different projects at a time, I benefit from the wonder of technology to conveniently store all my data.

I am curious how other capture their meeting notes to reference later.

right now I use just a txt file in a "meeting notes" folder. (I use Google desktop for searching.

I don't have Microsoft Onenote, but I use Outlook Tasks for all my jobs. It doesn't quite fit the meeting notes idea though.

Any suggestions?

Posted 1 year ago #
HappyDogs
Member

I can't wait to hear what others do. Frequently, we end up mapping out something on the white board, then, since none of us want to rewrite it, we take a photo of it. It's not the best.

Posted 1 year ago #
trillie
Member

We did the text file thing, and the picture thing at work, but the thing that often works best for us (small software company, 25 people total, meetings usually with only a few people) is that one person who took the most notes or the one who is in charge of the project writes an email directly afterwards and sends it to the participants. Email content: Summary of what was discussed, what solutions were presented, who is in charge of what, what are the next steps, deadlines, date of next meeting. Whenever something is spontaneously decided, we email it to each other too, even if it's just one line. It's a lot of email clutter, but for most of us, it works well as our way of project management.

Posted 1 year ago #
knyghtmaire
Member

I use the picture of the Whiteboard all the time. I would save recordings too. However, it would be an incredible breach of security.

Since most of this is just for my own documentation, I really didn't even consider the email idea (I could just email it to myself.) However, I feel it is just as efficient with Outlook Tasks.

A set format of meeting content like trilli suggested is pretty sweet idea.

Posted 1 year ago #
trillie
Member

Yup. Point is, haven't we all had blah meetings where you feel incredibly productive during, and then afterwards it's just "um, what was it really about?". When you're the one who is going to write the summary email after a meeting, you have to make sure you know what the next steps are and who will be in charge :o)

Posted 1 year ago #
AJ
Member

How about a pen that records your writing and puts it into a PDF? A pen that also records (if you want) and co-ordinates the timing of your notes with the voice recording?

I haven't looked into prices because it's not available where I live, but the SmartPen looks like a really cool gadget.

http://www.livescribe.com/

Posted 1 year ago #
trillie
Member

Sorry to be the one spamming comments here, but now that I read knyghtmaire's first post again, it sounds like (s)he is the only one referencing her/his own meeting notes later, no? That email thing works well for us, because we're not many people in an open-plan office where we can yell stuff, too :oD But when you work mostly alone, you work and remember differently. So it might make sense for you to try out free groupware or project management software (like eGroupWare) or anything that lets you assign notes and tasks to different projects. Mind mapping software like FreeMind, or just software like Evernote might work for you.

@ AJ, the SmartPen looks like fun. Another cool thing if you have lots of thoughts/notes might be trying speech recognition software where you dictate the text and the computer writes it down for you. Yay for futuristic gadgets!

Posted 1 year ago #
rachel_413
Member

What I do for important notes, is I scan them and put them in the computer folder for that particular project, usually in a subfolder called Basis. Although scanning your notes is an extra work step, it gets rid of paper files, and it's important to have records for other people who work on the project, or may have to follow your trail long after you've moved on to other projects or companies.

Posted 1 year ago #
timmm23
Member

funny that you bring this up, this week we could try our new service

paper,pen and phone

it is so super cool, you write down your notes and once finish you take the little tag, swipe over the send mark and you have everything in the web portal
from there you can process it further, text recognition, re-send etc.

works like a charm

=)

Posted 1 year ago #
georgetownsandi
Member

I take a photo if all notes are legible on a whiteboard :-) Even my own paper notes, I photo and scan to Evernote on my iPhone and send out that way. Works great.

Posted 1 year ago #
fshapps
Member

Try Zim desktop wiki. Free, cross-platform, simple and incredibly flexible. Everything is stored in text files so no worries about data portability.

http://zim-wiki.org/

Posted 1 year ago #
LaurenS
Member

Hi, I'm Lauren from Springad. Notetaking in Springpad is really easy. All of the notes you enter are automatically synced between the web app and iPhone app; and what's really great from an organizational point of view is that the note can be then be added to any Springpad app, list, and/or shared.

Springpad is a free web application that helps people quickly save anything they want to remember, and access it from anywhere (ideas, notes, recipes, books, restaurants, wine, etc. We just launched a new web site and an iphone app last week, so you can capture and save anything—notes, recipes, shopping lists, books, movies and more. All feedback is welcome. We want to hear from you. http://springpadit.com

Posted 1 year ago #
sugarsmax
Member

We use a webcam on our whiteboards as often as possible, even if we may never need it. Getting in the habit of setting it up for any mtg encourages us (a) to get discussions on the wall and (b) get it down to disk to encourage referring back to them.

I also use Outlook Journal religiously. Auto time-stamp, auto category, rich text edit, easy to forward to the other people in the mtg, etc. And since I'm in Outlook all day anyway, I've found the Journal is easier than yet another app. Although MindMap does look slick...

Posted 1 year ago #
rw86347
Member

I hate paper!!!

However nothing seems to be faster at recording notes than paper and pen. Not to mention the freedom to draw pictures and arrows.

So for every meeting I grab printer paper. I write the meeting name and date at the top, then take notes. At then end I snap a photo with evernote on my iphone. Not only does that duplicate my data on every device I own, but it also captures the time and location of the meeting.

My notes are duplicated on every computer, and device and I don't have to carry them around.

Posted 1 year ago #
robhixkg
Member

Some great ideas here. Especially if you can control the software that is installed on your computer. I cannot install software at work, so this get a little harder. I am supposed to be getting OneNote later this month (been waiting since April). Hopefully that will change my note taking process.

Thanks for the great ideas. Especially the ones about the pictures.

Posted 1 year ago #
knyghtmaire
Member

After some time, I have found that Tomboy notes works the best. With the dynamic linking, and great search feature it seems to work the best for integration with both projects, personal notes, reminders, and meetings.

Tomboy allows me to sync to the web, more specifically my Ubuntu-One share. I used to use both Dropbox, and Evernote, (still do all the time) but our work firewall is increasingly strict. Since I work and play across multiple computers, and operating systems, this has worked out the best. It's like a personal wiki that follows me around.

I must add however that I tag the notes, as well as indicating which project it is related to.
Additionally, if there are any files or data other then unformatted text that needs to be captured, I still must add it to my Outlook Task (for work, Evernote for everything else) by hand. Keeping track of that is as easy as Wiki-Tagging "[_] Added to Outlook?" so at the end of the day (or week) I just right-click the "[_] Added to Outlook?" note, and select "what links here." I put an X in when it's entered.

I like OneNote, but it's not an option. I STILL write all kinds of things down. Plus take pictures. But for speed, search-ability, and syncing, I use Tomboy notes. ZimWiki looks really cool, but the work stuff needs to be encrypted. Without getting into it, it doesn't play well with PGP. I once used my own home wiki for a while. But had to stop for the same reason. Outlook Journal works well, but I don't like putting too much personal information in the company Exchange server, nor can I access it from anywhere.

I should mention, that I also shamelessly use AutoHotkey in Windows and AutoKey in Linux for shortcuts, text expansion and quick pick menus. This keeps the tags, frequently used lists and formatting all the same.

Thank you so much everyone.

Posted 1 year ago #
markS
Member

Springpad is a free web application that helps people quickly save anything they want to remember, and access it from anywhere (ideas, notes, recipes, books, restaurants, wine, etc. We just launched a new web site and an iphone app last week, so you can capture and save anything—notes, recipes, shopping lists, books, movies and more. All feedback is welcome. We want to hear from you. http://springpadit.com/health

I just started using springpad, and with my iphone, it is pretty cool. Saving items by barcode is awesome, and something I didn't know was possible. Springpad doesn't do everything under the sun, but works for me as a nice little digital notebook.

Posted 1 year ago #

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