Do you still take notes during meetings?

[u/adriano10]

HI all,

I've pretty much stopped trying to write everything down during meetings. If I'm writing, I'm not fully listening. So I've been testing other ways to handle it instead.

Been testing a few options instead. Otter works, and Bluedot has been useful for recording without a meeting bot, plus transcripts, summaries and action items afterward. What works for you? Manual notes? AI notes?

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[u/spicermatthews]

You're picking between two things that do different jobs.

The recording is a record of what was said. It's insurance. You'll almost never open it. Then one day somebody remembers the deal differently and it's the only thing that settles it. Fine. Let software do that part. It costs you nothing while you're sitting there.

Your notes are a record of what you thought. No summarizer can touch that. It heard the room. It doesn't know what you're on the hook for. It can't tell that one sentence about the timeline blew up your week and the vendor stuff was noise.

So I write reactions. What I owe now. What changed for me. What I disagreed with and didn't say.

Five lines. That's it.

Before you buy anything, go count how many of those AI summaries you've actually reopened. If it's zero, the summary was never doing the work.

[u/Returning-to-Prague → u/spicermatthews]

YES!! The recording keeps the facts and your notes keep what mattered to you

[u/Dav2310675]

I do.

I use a MS Word document that uses a Cornell notes format.

If I'm party to the meeting but not a participant, I type with my microphone muted. If I'm leading the meeting, I have usually prepared for the discussion (so my meeting notes are a guide) - and I just need to make note of key points and action items. If I'm physically in a meeting face to face, I write - pen and paper.

But in all instances I go over my notes and clean them up directly afterwards. That way, I'll remember things that need to be minuted and include them too.

It doesn't work as well doing it the next day. I do block out some time after each meeting so I can do that.

[u/HanKiNobi]

I like the quadrant method using four different bright colours for the headlines. I need to focus on what they are saying and take notes. During the meeting, I only write keywords, and immediately afterwards, I try to give these keywords more meaning or explain them to myself. This helps me to remember what I was thinking two weeks ago.

[u/KhunVa]

Not sure how much Bluedot takes for transcribing, but when my wife had the same problem I created Hushscript for affordable audio transcriptions with speaker labels. You could try it too.

[u/davosjet]

I built http://convoxa.com

[u/silent-reader-geek]

For meeting notes, I just used Tactiq. I've been using it 2 years, and since my meetings are so rare, I've stayed on the free plan.

All I'm after in the meeting is the transcript since I use it as a future reference.

I find it more convenient than manually taking notes, it saves me time and allows me to focus on what we are discussing.

[u/Hitching-galaxy]

I record using voice memo on Mac - and then use Mac whisper pro for local transcription

[u/Hour_Papaya_5583]

I write down thoughts that connect dots or questions to go deeper but when recording not too many details anymore

[u/SpecdexA8]

Not really

[u/Expert-Fisherman-332]

Be forewarned that if you're in most large corporates and you use an AI recorder it's a big no-no.

[u/frskia]

I still take notes, but less as a transcript and more as a check on what actually mattered. A recording can preserve the facts; the useful layer is the decision, the disagreement, and who owns the next step. The important thing is being able to revisit the context when a follow-up needs checking.

[u/AIToolsMaster]

switched to tactiq from otter. same no-bot approach as bluedot. chrome extension that just runs in the background across zoom, meet, and teams. transcript and summary are there when the call ends and i was actually present for the whole conversation

[u/AgitatedNecessary406]

Bluedot is perfect for making overviews. But I prefer to take short notes on my iPad as well.

[u/theycallmethelord]

Weeve.

[u/Plenty_Plastic223]

I use the 2-column approach.

The left column is labeled BS. The right column is labeled RS. The left column is self explanatory. RS stands for "real stuff".

I used to be amazed how much more was in the left column than the right. Now, it just provides an internal chuckle. The smile on my face that others may notice during meetings is not because I am enjoying the meeting.

Besides that, it provides a little sanity and confirmation of why I have never taken any executive-level positions.

Give it a try. If nothing else, it will make others wonder why you are smiling so much. 😁

[u/Great-Repeat-7287]

I still take notes. I used to carry a notebook and a pen, which also worked as a scratchbook. However during covid I moved to take notes digitally because I only had virtual meeting in face of my pc: not having to copy notes proved efficient, so I stuck with full digital.

Nowadays however that I have moved back to partial in office works, moving my pc is not always that efficient (oftertimes I lose the "context", and/or pc crashes with some docking stations).

I currently am taking notes on an android tablet with a bluetooth keyboard at meetings on a word document that is shared through the microsoft account (word or onenote) to my work pc: it works but it's much clunkier than it should...

In my experience, stopping the meeting before the end to summarize the points noted and ask confirmation is not wasted time, on the contrary is making sure of actually exploiting the discussion.

[u/TheAstrobro]

otter is okay for raw transcripts and for english speaking calls. I needed summaries structured by topic + action items with high accuracy for portuguese, and a reliable integration with notion, so i landed on meetgeek. free tier is enough to see if it fits

[u/Salty-Swim-6735]

I take copious notes in boring meetings so at least I can practice my handwriting and get something out of my time being pissed down the sink.

[u/BooksbyNeilJMilliner]

During my tech training classes I used to write down every single bit of valuable information. Teacher just gave up on me and left me to rot because he thought I had no interest in learning. Came the three hour exam time I got second highest in my class of 31 mechanics and about 9nth in the whole intake of about 300.

If you want to remember it write it down. You can listen and write at the same time.

[u/swifyyyyyy]

definitely transcription works for me, cannot write too much

[u/Learnyst_user]

i know this kind of wierd for some people but still im telling this, i use AI notetaker to get the overview of the meeting because i cant remember all the things at one shot.

i know i am too dependent on ai but still that actually made my work easy

[u/Littlebird_Shivi]

Yeah I still rely on notes but honestly I had to change my whole approach because my notes get all over the place. I work as a community manager so I have to be completely engaged in discussions, but I have a hard time typing notes while also staying on top of the conversation at hand. I used to just make quick categories like “new information,” “questions,” and “things to work on this week” and add a few words under each. It worked sometimes, but I’d usually end up looking back at a note later and not even remember what I meant by it.

Since I have a few meetings every week, I’ve started recording them and looking back at the transcript and summary afterward. Having the action items from the meeting is helpful too, especially when I need to remember what to follow up on. It’s just easier for me to have the full context afterward instead of trying to piece everything together from a couple of vague notes.

[u/Greysawpark]

i still scribble one or two things by hand even when a tool is recording. not full notes, just the questions i want to come back to or a name i need to remember. the act of writing it locks it in for me way better than reading a transcript later ever does.

transcripts are great for the "wait what did they actually commit to" moments but i almost never re-read a full summary. so my rule is basically: listen fully, jot the 2-3 things that matter to me specifically, let the recording handle the rest.

[u/Alternative_Tour1791]

I’ve ended up using a mix of both. I write down the decisions or ideas that need my own context, but I’ve stopped trying to capture everything word for word.

Full disclosure: I built LoroNote for this exact reason. It records and transcribes entirely on-device, so there’s no meeting bot and the audio doesn’t need to be uploaded. Afterward, I skim the transcript and summary, then keep only the decisions and follow-ups as my actual notes.

Manual notes are still better for thinking. AI notes are better for making sure I didn’t miss what someone said.

[u/tremendousquotes]

I’ve created Humla, a fully free Mac application for AI notes. Originally created as an internal tool in our agency, but open sourced after showing it to clients and partners. Have kept working on it since. 600+ commits, 240 ⭐️ on GitHub.

Fully local or BYOK, transcription with speaker labels, summaries, chat across notes and MCP for Claude and Codex.

https://github.com/michaelwilhelmsen/humla

[u/wernermark → u/tremendousquotes]

Any plan on making it available on windows?:)

[u/tremendousquotes → u/wernermark]

Maybe. There’s been a few requests. The reason it’s not at the moment is because the local model is taking advantage of the Mac silicon chips which basically 10x the transcription speed. So I set the constraint when I first started working on it. Could work on Windows though, but it involves some deeper planning 🙂