How to take meeting notes when you're also in the meeting

Write them in shorthand as they happen, read them back before the meeting ends, and spend five minutes afterwards turning them into sentences. Everything else can go.

This guide covers what to listen for, how to write fast enough without dropping out of the conversation, how to check your notes with the room, and what changes when there is a recording or transcript to go back to.

Why full notes do not work

If you try to capture the conversation, one of two things happens. Either you fall behind and miss the moment a decision is made, or you keep up and stop contributing. In both cases the notes end up long and unread, because the decisions are scattered through paragraphs of discussion.

People who take good notes in meetings they are also running are not writing faster. They are writing less, and choosing what to write.

Listen for three things

Decisions

Something is decided when the discussion about it stops and nobody expects it to restart. Listen for phrases like "let's go with", "so we're agreed", "fine, do that". Those are the moments to write one line.

Also notice when a discussion ends without a decision. "We'll come back to this" is not a decision; it is an open question, and it should be written as one.

Commitments

A commitment is a person agreeing to do something. "I'll send it tomorrow" is a commitment with an owner and a date. "Someone should send it" is not; write it as a question, or ask the room who will.

Capture the owner's name, the verb and the deliverable. If there is no date, that is a gap to fill before the meeting ends.

Open questions

Things raised and not settled: a number nobody had, a person who needs to be asked, a risk someone mentioned. These are easy to lose because nobody acts on them in the meeting. Written down, they become next week's agenda.

Write in shorthand, fix it later

During the meeting, write for yourself, not for readers. A few conventions help:

• D: for a decision, A: for an action, Q: for a question. Then tidying up is sorting, not rereading.
• Initials for names. "TB" for Tom Becker is enough while you remember who TB is.
• Arrows and dashes instead of sentences. "2.4 → Thu, export → 2.5" is a decision.
• A mark for "check this". If you are not sure what was agreed, put a question mark beside it and ask before the end.

A page of live notes from a fictional release meeting might look like this:

D: 2.4 ships Thu. Export → 2.5 (AR)
A: TB review 2 PRs, Wed noon
A: PS release note draft → AR, Wed
Q: Northwind contract promise export in 2.4?? MD to ask sales
D?: release note mentions export, no date — confirm

It is not readable by anyone else, and it does not need to be.

Stop writing when you speak

The simplest rule for staying in the conversation: when you are about to talk, put the pen down or take your hands off the keyboard. Nobody listens well while writing, and nobody argues well while writing either.

If you are running the meeting as well, consider asking someone else to take notes, or at least to catch the action items. Rotating the job between meetings spreads the load and gets everyone into the habit of listening for commitments.

Check the notes before the meeting ends

Leave two minutes at the end and read the decisions and action items aloud: "So: 2.4 ships Thursday, export moves to 2.5. Tom reviews the pull requests by Wednesday noon, Priya drafts the release note. Marc checks with sales about the contract. Anything I've missed?"

This does three things. It catches misunderstandings while everyone is still there to correct them. It turns vague agreements into commitments, because saying "Tom, by Wednesday?" out loud tends to get a yes or a better date. And it tells everyone the notes are coming, so they expect them.

Tidy up straight after

Within an hour of the meeting, while you still remember what "D?" meant, turn the shorthand into the meeting notes template: decisions, action items with owners and dates, open questions, and a few lines of context if needed. It usually takes five minutes. Left until the next day, the same notes take longer and are less accurate.

Then send them. Notes sent the same day get read and corrected; notes sent a week later get archived.

If some of the decisions will matter for months, copy them into a decision log as well, so they do not have to be found again in a pile of old notes.

What changes when there is a transcript

A recording or transcript takes away the pressure to capture detail. You no longer need to write down the exact figure the client quoted, or the wording of a requirement, because you can find it later. That makes the live notes even more about judgement: what was decided, who committed to what, what is still open.

It does not take away the need to check with the room. A transcript records that someone said "we could probably do that by Friday"; only asking tells you whether it was a commitment.

A few habits help when there is a transcript:

• Note the time of anything important. "14:20, pricing decision" makes the moment easy to find and replay.
• Say names and numbers clearly. Speech recognition gets them wrong more than anything else. Saying "that's Northwind, N-O-R-T-H" once costs nothing.
• Still write the decisions yourself. A summary written from a transcript is a draft. You were in the room and know what was actually agreed.

Notey records the meeting on your Mac, transcribes it there as it happens, and lets you search what was said and play any line from its timestamp. After the meeting, it can write a summary with action items from the transcript if you ask, labelled as AI-generated. Your own live notes remain the best check on that draft.

Recording also needs the other people's agreement. Say at the start that you are recording, and why. A recorder on your own computer is not visible in the call, so telling people is your job.

A short checklist

1. Before: write the meeting's purpose at the top of the page.
2. During: only decisions, commitments and open questions, in shorthand.
3. When you speak: stop writing.
4. Two minutes before the end: read the decisions and actions aloud.
5. Within the hour: rewrite into the template and send.

Frequently asked questions

How do you take notes and participate in a meeting at the same time?

Write down only decisions, commitments and open questions, in shorthand, and leave the rest. When you are about to speak, stop writing. Spend five minutes straight after the meeting turning the shorthand into sentences.

Should I type or handwrite meeting notes?

Whichever lets you keep looking at people. Typing is faster to share; handwriting is quieter on a call and less distracting to others in a room. The content matters more than the tool.

What is the best note-taking method for meetings?

One that separates decisions, action items and questions from everything else. A simple template with those three headings works better than a general method such as Cornell or mind maps, because meeting notes exist to be acted on.

Is it rude to take notes on a laptop in a meeting?

It depends on the room. Saying "I'll take notes" at the start makes it clear what the laptop is for. On a video call nobody can see it, but a pause while you type can still be noticed.