How to take meeting notes that end in action items

To take good meeting notes, write the meeting's purpose before it starts, capture only decisions and action items while it runs, and read the actions back before everyone leaves. Each action needs a verb, one owner and a date. Notes built this way tell you what happens next, not just what was said.

Taking notes is not about transcribing every word. It is about capturing what the work needs in order to move forward, and that comes down to three stages: before, during and after.

Before the meeting: purpose, people, agenda

Write three things at the top of the page before anyone speaks. The purpose, in one line: why are we meeting, and what should be decided? The people in the room, so you know who can own an action later. And the agenda, as a short list you can tick through. When there is no agenda, the meeting tends to wander, and the notes wander with it.

During the meeting: three kinds of notes

You only need to capture three kinds of information, and it helps to keep them visibly apart on the page.

• Notes: the context and the points that shaped the discussion, a few words each.
• Decisions: what was agreed, written as a full sentence so nobody can read it two ways later.
• Actions: a verb, an owner and a date. "We should update the pricing page" is not an action. "Maria updates the pricing page by Friday" is.

If you want to see the structure filled in for real kinds of meetings, our meeting notes examples show a team meeting, a client call, a one-to-one and a kickoff.

After the meeting: read the actions back, then send them

Use the last two minutes to read every action aloud, with its owner and its date. It catches the "I thought you were doing that" problem while everyone is still in the room. Then send the decisions and actions to the attendees the same day, while the context is fresh.

Finally, move your own actions into your own week. An action with no time reserved for it tends to wait until the next meeting, so give each one a slot with time blocking and decide the moment you will start it. That is the path the Action Day® Method uses for any task, TO-DO → TIMEBOX → DO → DONE™, and how it works walks through the four steps.

What to write down and what to leave out

Write down outcomes, not the conversation. If a 15-minute debate ends in one decision, the decision is the note. Leave out small talk, tangents and word-for-word quotes, unless the exact wording matters, such as a figure a client committed to. A useful test before you close the notebook: could someone who missed the meeting tell what to do next from your page alone?

By hand or on a laptop?

Each has a cost. A laptop is faster and searchable, but notifications compete for your attention, and fast typing tempts you to record everything. Handwriting is slower, which forces you to choose what matters, and a closed screen tells the room you are listening. Choose the one that keeps you paying attention to the people in the meeting.

A layout built for it

A blank page works if you draw the structure yourself each time. The Action Meeting Notebook prints it for you. Its spreads cover meeting planning, an action item review, an action plan and meeting notes, with fields for the date and for the start and end time of each meeting. It is non-dated, so you use a page only when you have a meeting, and it has a ribbon bookmark, an inner pocket and an elastic pen loop.

Where to find old notes

Notes help only if you can find them three months later. Make the index entry part of closing the meeting: date, topic and page number, written before you put the pen down. The Action Meeting Notebook has numbered pages and a table of contents for exactly this. Two seconds of indexing saves a ten-minute search when someone asks what was agreed in March.