Note taking strategies for business meetings

Effective business meeting note-taking is a skill that takes time to master. And if you are a player in the corporate or business world, you will undoubtedly have to master this skill, because you will need to attend business meetings where taking notes is very important.

While you may have a secretary or assistant taking business meeting notes for you, they will not do the same when you attend an important business conference abroad or an impromptu meeting with a client or supplier outside the office.

Even if you’ve taken notes for personal use multiple times, that doesn’t mean you’ll be good at taking notes at business meetings. This is because taking notes in business meetings requires a very different skill set. For example, in personal notes, you can use abbreviations and transcripts, or even drawings that only you can interpret. Your personal notes should not follow a pattern or show any considerations to another reader. And they don’t have to be neat, because they are for your use only.

However, meeting notes serve a completely different purpose because they are written for others and they serve as historical documents that mark decisions and actions taken or discussed at a business meeting. If you need to take notes at a business meeting; The following tips will help you use them effectively.

10 Effective Note-taking Strategies and Tips for Business Meetings

1. Use a pen and paper

You can bet we are in the world of tablets, laptops and PDAs right now. But the truth is, using pen and paper is less intrusive and makes it easier for you to maintain eye contact with the person speaking. In addition to creating a wall between you and the person you are talking to, digital devices give the impression that you are working on something else or communicating with someone, even if you are not. And it’s even easier to get distracted when using these devices.

2. Learn and use shorthand

No, shorthand isn’t just for secretaries and journalists; it’s still true for taking notes at business meetings, especially when you’re listening to a speaker who speaks quickly. Learning shorthand is not as difficult as you might think. Just search the Internet for helpful and relevant resources and you should be able to master them within a couple of months.

If you don’t have time to study shorthand, you can formulate your own abbreviations and mnemonics that you will use when recording business meetings. You can imagine whatever you like; just make sure it makes sense to you.

3. Just highlight key points

You will get bored with taking notes if you try to screw things up. When taking notes in a business meeting, listen to everyone, but write down only the important and important things. It goes without saying, but you don’t need to write down a short joke that was hacked during a meeting.

  1. Prepare a written report immediately after the meeting

As stated earlier, a business note serves as a historical document and reference information, but only when it is turned into a comprehensive text. Of course, you cannot expect the company to keep the draft paper that you wrote during the meeting; you need to prepare a neatly written report that is more presentable and understandable to any reader.

Try to prepare your report immediately after the meeting, while everything is still fresh in your mind. And even if you are not asked to submit an official report, you can use this document for your personal archives or as evidence in the event of a conflict over the discussion.

  1. Listen carefully

When a business meeting begins, your dual role begins: listening and taking notes. Although doing both together is difficult and seemingly unrealistic, if you want to be better at one, you need to listen. If you can listen to every important detail without missing a single one, you can always include what you missed by writing later.

  1. Know the difference between different types of statements

During a business meeting, participants discuss different types of statements. These include opinions, facts, questions, suggestions, guesses, questions, and so on. You should know how to define each of these assertion types to avoid confusion. You know it can be confusing when you report a proposal as fact.

  1. Keep it short and simple

Regardless of how you write down what happens during the meeting, you need to make your final report clear enough for the benefit of others. To do this, make sure that your language is clear and objective in everything.

  1. Write down everything about the meeting

When taking notes at a business meeting, do not forget to add all the necessary details about the meeting; towards discussions. These include the type of meeting ( planned or emergency ), the purpose of the meeting, the date and time of the meeting, the name of the person who called or presided over the meeting, the names of those present and any information regarding the next meeting. These details make your meeting notes complete. You don’t want people to start asking who said what date or what time the meeting was held.

9. Be specific: … You must be absolutely precise in presenting the details of the meeting. as it will become an approved official document.

10. Read carefully

Even if your goal is to provide accurate information about a business meeting with your note, being free of typographical, grammatical and spelling errors is also very important. If your notes are filled with these mistakes, you will undermine your reputation as a reliable information provider.

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