For everyone who works in an office, it's likely you have a meeting from time to time, or perhaps even spend your day going from one to another non-stop. It is how it works for certain positions or companies. There is a lot of literature and many methods on how to organize and lead a meeting so that it isn't associated with a waste of time. That is not the subject of this post.
The advent of consumer-grade Artificial Intelligence has transformed the way we keep track of a meeting and extract key lessons from it. On this topic, AI and automation are game-changers. Exchanges between participants are recorded, analyzed, turned into tasks, and assigned to the right people, all almost frictionlessly.
On a collective level, this is effective, but on an individual level, it raises questions about the necessity for participants to take notes. What's the point when AI handles everything?
Taking Notes
AI handles everything, but not our brain ("not yet," both technophiles and technophobes might say). Note-taking requires active listening. It helps you stay focused, which is useful for meetings that drag on, those that are back-to-back, or those that a colleague schedules for you at the very end of the day on Friday. Taking notes allows you to keep track, both of the discussion and your own thoughts, so you can contribute. Obviously, this is not about taking the official minutes. There is a form of complementarity with AI in this sense. By comparing with your notes, it is also possible to verify that the AI hasn't missed key points (or inadvertently assigned you a task that is not within your scope).
Taking Notes on Paper
While the mobile phone has become an extension of the body, it is complemented by the laptop in meetings. Taking notes immediately in digital form might seem obvious: no time wasted typing up notes afterwards. That's true, but the computer is a temptation, providing easy access to emails, messages received on internal messaging, and the wider global internet. For the person officially taking the minutes for the entire meeting, using a computer is logical, but for participants, it is often a source of distraction.
Taking Notes and "Drawing"
Attending a meeting with a notepad doesn't necessarily have to mean taking notes, as counter-intuitive as that may sound. In another article, I explain the cognitive benefits of drawing, or rather doodling, on concentration. It's not intentional drawing, but rather something closer to an automatic mode, with simple shapes, lines, patterns... for me, at least. This aids concentration and memory.
Structuring Your Meetings Like Your Day
At Ancre, in addition to notepads, we also offer a tracker journal that can be used in a professional setting by structuring your days around tasks and a space for taking notes. This structure also works for following a meeting, with key tasks or decisions, alongside topics of agreement or disagreement.
Notepads can also replace the Post-it notes that pile up on a desk. They offer a more methodical approach to keeping a dated record of events, tasks, and information to remember collected during the day. A notepad, by its simplicity, adapts to your way of working, whereas workers too often adapt to the tools imposed by the company. A notepad is also a private space that managers and employers do not have access to.
That's our overview of the advantages (and disadvantages) of taking notes in meetings. And if you are a boss or manager who is tired of your teams staring at their screens in every meeting, don't hesitate to contact us for a bulk order (we'll arrange a meeting to discuss the discount).
