Notes are important for creating “minutes that everyone can understand.” If you extract the main points of the meeting and leave notes, you can immediately create and share the minutes, making it easier to reflect them in your work.
On the other hand, many people may not be good at taking notes because “taking notes cannot keep up with the speed of the discussion” or “important points of meeting are missed”.
In this issue, we will focus on tips for taking good notes of the proceedings at meetings. And this article is for below people.
- “I am struggling with the current situation where my notes cannot keep up with the speed of the meeting and do not work well.”
- “I want to know the hang of writing easy-to-understand minutes.”
- “I want to improve the situation where the way of taking meeting minutes varies from employee to employee.”
This article will give you tips and tricks on how to take good notes during meetings, and help you write minutes that are easy to understand.
Contents
- 1 The purpose of minutes
- 2 Basic items for minutes
- 3 Sample of minutes
- 4 What is the note-taking tips practiced by good people?
- 5 5 steps to turn your notes into minutes
- 6 The best tool for creating and sharing notes of minutes
- 7 Items for taking notes on minutes
- 8 Summary of tips for taking good minutes notes
The purpose of minutes
The most important thing to note in the minutes is to “capture the content of the meeting without excess or insufficient it”. The purpose of the minutes listed below.
- Share the decisions of the meeting
- Share tasks and deadlines
An important purpose of the minutes is to share decisions for other members. Make them clear so that everyone can understand them, and make sure that there is no discrepancy in understanding among participants.
Minutes also serve to share tasks and deadlines until the next meeting. By sharing the minutes immediately, you can get started on what needs to be done.
As described above, minutes of meeting serve the purpose of sharing decisions and tasks. Also, by capturing the main points of the meeting from the note-taking stage, you can make the minutes “easy to understand at a glance by anyone”.
Basic items for minutes
In order to avoid omission of any notes, the following basic items should be kept in mind.
- Meeting name/date/place/participants
- Purpose of the meeting/decisions
- Content of discussion
- Agenda for next meeting
- Reference materials
If you have the basic information of the meeting, you can read the minutes after knowing “what the meeting is about”.
If you mention the purpose as well as the decisions, you can check both of them against each other.
Describe the events leading up to the decision items, including the speaker.
Describe the tasks and deadlines for the next meeting.
Do not forget to attach reference materials for employees who were unable to attend the meeting.
With these basic items in place, anyone can easily create minutes with no omissions.
Sample of minutes
Below are some examples of meeting minutes. You can also use them as templates by copying and pasting and deleting the examples.
・Meeting name: (e.g.) Sales Expansion Project Kick-off Meeting
・Date and time: (e.g.) Friday, July 21, 2023
・Location: (e.g.) Head Office Conference Room C
・Attendees: (e.g.) Mr. Sato(General Managers of the Sales Department), Mr. Jony, Ms. Smith
・Objective
(e.g.) To develop measures to increase sales by 1.5 times in the next fiscal year
・Decisions to be made
(e.g.) Change in sales system
・Content of next meeting
(e.g.) 9/1 (Thu.) 3rd meeting: Discussion on marketing idea for next season.
・Tasks and deadlines
(e.g.) Submit theme for press release by 8/30/23(Wed.)
・Reference materials
(e.g.) Refer to the attached file for future schedule
As in the example above, using numbers and bullet points makes it easier to read, so that even members not attending the meeting can grasp the content at a glance.
What is the note-taking tips practiced by good people?
We will explain the tips that good people practice to take notes quickly for minutes of meeting. As it is not possible to take notes of everything said, so practice the following.
Tip 1｜Check what needs to be stated
The first tip is to make sure you know what you should include in your note.
For example, reviewing the minutes of the previous meeting will give you an idea of how the discussion progressed and what should be written down. Also, in meetings where many statements are expected, such as brainstorming sessions, consider indicating the relationship between opinions and groupings.
As mentioned above, making sure that the content and writing style of your notes are based on the theme of the meeting will ensure that your notes go smoothly.
Tip 2｜Be aware of the 5W1H
Next, in order to quickly take notes without omissions, be aware of the “5W1H. 5W1H refers to the following six elements.
- When
- Where
- Who
- What
- Why
- How
If you take notes with the above 5W1H in mind, you will not have to worry about important information being omitted.
Tip 3｜Use symbols for notes
Next, you can simplify your meeting notes more efficiently by using symbols and embellishments to simplify the text.
For example, by assigning symbols such as “✔️” for those who agree with an agenda item and “-” for those who disagree, you can save time and effort in writing the text and make it easier to read. In addition, adding a “☆” to a decision will make the conclusion clear.
As mentioned above, in order to speed up the taking of notes for the minutes, it is also effective to use symbols to simplify and describe the minutes.
Tip 4｜Use shortcut keys
Next, when taking minutes on a computer, shortcut keys can also be used to shorten the time required.
Shortcut keys are functions that combine multiple keys on the keyboard to save time and effort. Below are some basic Windows shortcut keys.
- Ctrl+C: Copy
- Ctrl+A: Select all
- Ctrl+X: Cut
- Ctrl+V: Paste
- Ctrl+F: Find
- Ctrl+B: Bold
- Ctrl+Z: Undo
By using the above shortcut keys, you can edit with just a few operations and take notes efficiently.
Tip 5｜Collaborative editing of notes
Next, when there are many participants in a meeting, you can also use the method of collaborative editing of notes.
The advantage of collaborative editing is that it is easier to catchup on notes than when you take notes alone. Also, if the roles of note-taking are agreed upon in advance, there is no need to worry about duplicating notes.
By editing notes together as described above, it is easier to take notes without excesses or deficiencies in content.
Tip 6｜Use templates and formats
Finally, it is also effective to use templates and formats.
Using a template solves the need to think of items and structure from scratch. However, with paper, Word, or Excel templates, the number of files increases for each meeting, making management cumbersome.
Therefore, it is best to use an “IT tool” that can automatically recall registered templates. In particular, a tool like Stock, which has no excess or insufficient of necessary functions, can be used intuitively even by those who are not good at IT.
5 steps to turn your notes into minutes
Notes taken at a meeting should be immediately rewritten into the minutes. Below are 5 steps to turn your notes into “minutes.”
(1) Put them together with the same content
First, summarize your notes with the same content.
Notes taken at a meeting are a collection of fragments of information. If you try to transcribe them directly into the minutes without explanation, members who did not participate in the meeting will not be able to understand them.
At the beginning of the meeting, the notes should be categorized by content to make the flow of the meeting easier to understand. It is also effective to have a third party check for any omissions at this stage.
(2) Create the items for structure of minutes
Next, create a structure that allows everyone to understand the content of the meeting.
The items in the minutes do not have to match the order of the agenda. For example, you can rearrange the items as necessary, such as putting the decisions made at the beginning of the meeting or recording the conclusions first.
For regular meetings, you can also prepare a template for the minutes to save you the trouble of thinking about the structure.
(3) Organize the information using the framework as a reference.
Next, when organizing and describing the information you have written down, it is effective to use a framework that often using in Japan. Below are 2 types of frameworks.
- SDS framework
- PREP framework
The SDS framework is a method to structure sentences in the order of “Summary (main points)”, “Details”, and “Summary”.
Since the same main points are expressed in different depths of content, the SDS method has the advantage of impressing important points.
The PREP framework is a method of structuring sentences in the order of “Point (conclusion)”, “Reason”, “Example”, and “Point (conclusion)”.
The emphasis is placed on the conclusion, which makes decisions clear. When utilized in meeting minutes, the Reasons should include “the process leading up to the decision” and the Examples should include “outline and details”.
If the use of the above framework is standardized within the company, individual differences in quality will be solved and minutes can be created that are easy for anyone to read.
(4) Thoroughly review them.
Next, once the minutes are completed, review them thoroughly.
For example, check that there are no typographical errors or omissions, that the conclusion is presented, and that each sentence is not too long. If a sentence is too long and difficult to read, it is recommended to use “bullet points”.
Even if minutes are prepared, if the sentences are difficult to understand, they will not be useful as documents. Therefore, you should always provide time for review as well.
Finally, the key is to create the minutes immediately after the meeting and share them within 24 hours.
Minutes are not the end of the process; they are often shared and used for team decision-making. And if they are shared quickly, members who are not participating can review them immediately, the team’s work does not slow down.
However, if minutes are shared via email or chat, they may be buried in other messages, delaying confirmation. Therefore, use a tool such as Stock that allows you to share the minutes you have created in real time without being swamped by other messages.
The best tool for creating and sharing notes of minutes
Below is the best tool for creating and sharing notes of minutes.
Word and Excel, which are often used to create meeting minutes, are file formats that tend to bury the desired information as the number of meeting minutes grows. Therefore, to share and manage minutes smoothly, we recommend a “notebook-type tool” that can be easily accessed by anyone.
However, a multifunctional tool will be difficult for employees who are not familiar with IT to use, so “a simple tool that is not excessive or lacking in necessary functions” should be selected.
In conclusion, the best tool for creating and managing meeting minutes is Stock, which can keep and manage all information in “Note” and can be used immediately even by employees in non-IT companies.
You can keep and share notes and minutes in “Note” of Stock and easily attach Word, Excel, and other files. You can also save a “Template” of the minutes so you don’t have to create them from scratch for each meeting.
Stock｜The easiest tool to manage minutes
The simplest tool to stock information "Stock"
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Items for taking notes on minutes
Below are 4 items you can use to take notes on the minutes. Consider the number of people taking notes and the amount of time it will take, and adopt a method that works for your company.
IC Recorder
The first method is to record the meeting with an IC recorder.
By re-listening to the recorded data, you can make notes that are free of errors and omissions. An IC recorder is effective in avoiding the risk of missing information and accurately describing the information.
On the other hand, there are some disadvantages, such as “it takes twice as much time because you have to record and then transcribe the data” and “screen recording operation is necessary for online meetings”.
Notebooks
The second method is to use handwritten notebooks to take notes of the proceedings.
One advantage of handwritten notes is that there is more flexibility in what can be recorded. For example, in the case of a brainstorming meeting, you can use the notebook extensively to write down ideas and freely connect ideas with each other with lines.
On the other hand, the disadvantage is that it requires time and effort to transcribe the minutes into a PC as data for the proceedings.
Smartphones and PCs
The third method is to take notes using a smartphone or PC.
If you are familiar with using a smartphone, you can efficiently create notes using flick input. You can also take notes on a computer by using document creation services such as Word and Google Docs, which have been adopted by many companies.
However, the disadvantages of smartphones are that the input screen is small and difficult to operate, while the disadvantages of PCs are that it is troublesome to manage note document files.
IT tools
The fourth method is to use IT tools.
By using tools that allow intuitive entry and co-editing, it is possible to prevent missing notes without using an IC recorder to record them. In addition, since there is a function to manage files of notes and minutes, there is no need to worry that “the number of files increases with each meeting and management cannot keep up with them”.
However, if the operation is difficult, employees who are not familiar with IT will not be able to use the system, making it difficult to spread within the company. Using a tool like Stock, which allows you to leave information in an intuitive manner, to take notes on minutes of meeting.
Summary of tips for taking good minutes notes
We have focused on the key points and tips for taking good minutes notesof meeting.
The key point in taking notes of the minutes is to make sure that you do not excess or insufficient the main points of the meeting. If you are aware of the 5W1H when taking notes and prepare a template in advance, you can avoid a situation where notes cannot keep up with the meeting progress and create minutes efficiently and without omissions.
On the other hand, even if minutes are created in an easy-to-understand manner, if they are kept on paper or in Excel, the desired information may be buried and not be found. Therefore, a “notebook tool” should be used so that the necessary minutes can be accessed immediately.
However, a multifunctional tool may not be usable by employees, so “Stock” is the best choice for members who are not good with IT, but can easily create, share, and manage notes and meeting minutes.
Free registration only takes 1 minute, so be sure to use Stock to take notes from meetings and create easy-to-understand minutes.
