A Simple System to Take Meeting Notes Like Top Strategy Consultants Do

Practical and aggressively self-tested advice on taking notes at work

Do you struggle with taking notes in an effective way at work?

Note-taking makes a difference for you and your career.

Over the last 10 years, I have been in thousands of meetings as a consultant, project manager, release train engineer, and founder.

My first notes were terrible. I would write down everything that seemed important. When they asked me things like:

• How did it go?
• What have we learned?
• What are the next steps?

I was puzzled. There was so much information. It was impossible to focus on the key messages.

I hated the awkward feeling when my colleagues looked at me for a report and I couldn’t deliver effectively.

So, I developed a simple system that helps me to:

• make meetings more effective
• retain all relevant information
• understand and structure complex topics
• communicate with impact

Here, I will share my system and tips from all these years.

The key to a less stressful life lies in sorting and externally storing your thoughts and organizing the things around you, which means writing down your thoughts — Daniel Levitin

How to Take Notes for Maximum Effectiveness

First off, I take notes with pen and paper. Here is why:

• It’s less distracting
• It improves information retention
• It allows for more cognitive processing
• It’s more respectful in in-person meetings
• It’s easier to mix drawings and text

Let’s get right to it. This is what my system looks like.

It’s divided into 4 sections:

1. Top section: General info and objectives
2. Middle section: Notes and questions
3. Bottom Section: To-dos
4. (Optional) Page 2: Drawings

Top Section

Here, I gather all relevant organizational questions and the objectives.

• Date of the meeting
• Title of the meeting
• Names of the participants
• Owner: the underlined name in the participants list
• A drawing of the table with the initials of the people present for in-person meetings. This helps me keep track of new people and recall details later, making it easier to connect names to faces.
• Meeting objectives: What does the meeting owner say this is about? For example, “We want to gather some first ideas on improving the flow of value.”
• My objectives: what do I want to get out of this meeting? For example, I need to understand the problem that triggered this meeting and the responsibilities of all people. This helps me keep focused and ask the right questions.
• People info: helpful information on the participants that emerges during the meeting. For example, Marc used to lead team A. Lisa is an expert on Agile KPI. It’s Jack’s birthday next week. This creates angles to connect to others later.

Middle Section

This is where I collect the main points of the meeting. Here is how:

• I use bullet points instead of text to keep it organized
• I highlight decisions with underlines
• I use abbreviations and symbols to speed up my note-taking. For example, “→” for “leads to,” or “A” for “action.”
• I don’t transcribe but I summarize: I write down the main points and conclusions, rather than trying to capture everything that’s said.
• I use the 2nd empty page for drawings and mindmaps.

For example, let’s say I aimed to understand the problem that triggered this meeting. So I will pay special attention to anything that might point me in that direction.

• MZ says: “We keep having quality issues.”
• JD says: “Our lead time is 20 days, double the industry standard.”

I ask probing questions do dive deeper. For example: How do you notice the quality issues? Or, how exactly do calculate lead time?

I look at each bullet point I write and immediately ask myself: What else do I need to know to understand this fully?

I also reserve a little space for unresolved questions.

Bottom Section

In each meeting, I push for concrete outcomes. These always come with to-dos. I gather these apart from the general notes. I do this for 2 reasons:

1. If the to-dos are separate, it will be much easier to see them at first glance later on rather than having to search for the thickness of the other notes.
2. Seeing the to-do section reminds me to push for concrete next steps. That’s a great efficiency gain.

I structure to-dos in 3 clusters:

• My team’s to-dos
• My to-dos
• The client’s to-dos

If possible, I try to get deadlines and dependencies, too. For example, my to-do 1 may be the prerequisite for the client’s to-do. I show this with a little arrow.

Page 2

I almost always come across processes, organizational structures, or other concepts in meetings. These are easier to understand with a drawing.

So, I always keep an empty “page 2” to create such drawings in the meeting. These have several benefits:

• It creates a better understanding.
• It’s a great communication tool if you go from your personal notes to a whiteboard.
• You can place question marks and TBDs where you need to inquire further later.

I also use page 2 if I run out of space on page 1.

How to keep an overview of all your notes

Did you notice the little numbers 12 and 13 in the corners? I use these to organize all my notes like a book with a table of contents.

In this table, I collect:

1. The date
2. The title of the meeting
3. The reference pages in my notes
4. Any urgent remarks

Avoid the Four Most Common Mistakes in Note-Taking

1. Don’t try to make your notes look fancy. People talk fast, and you can't write so quickly while listening and interacting at the same time. You also can’t ask the others to slow down.
2. Don’t stop taking notes only because the meeting focuses on a different workstream. Conversations may take unexpected turns. I have been in meetings that started with a seemingly unrelated topic and then merged with my workstream. In the end, they asked me to take care of a topic. I had to say, “Sorry, I didn’t take notes. Can we please go over it again?” That's not cool.
3. Don’t use your laptop in in-person meetings. The laptop is a barrier when you sit before a client or colleague. Think of a coach typing everything his client is saying on his laptop. The client will be less likely to talk about everything, and it will feel too formal. Also, with pen and paper, you can make quick drawings. A tablet with a pen could be an alternative if you are well-versed with it.
4. Don’t forget to leave some room between notes. Meetings have strange dynamics. You might think you closed a point only to come back to it a minute later. It’s annoying when you have to add something later on without space. As a remedy, I start by leaving out every second bullet point to keep the space for additional notes.

Key Takeaways

Taking notes is one of the most overlooked skills. Not only is it one of the best productivity hacks, but it also trains your mind to bring structure into meetings and to retain information.

You have to make your own condensed notes. You learn from MAKING them. A lot of thinking goes into deciding what to include and exclude. — Peter Rogers

Chaotic and inefficient meetings get better when someone provides structure. Be that person. Your note system will help you.

Here is how:

1. Prepare a blank page
2. Think of what you want to get out of the meeting
3. Fill the top section with organizational information and the objectives
4. Use the middle section for notes and questions
5. Collect to-dos in a structured way at the bottom section
6. Have a second page for drawings
7. Add a new line for each meeting note in the table of contents
8. Avoid mistakes such as being too fancy, missing important things, or over-relying on your laptop

You can copy and adjust my system to take notes efficiently.

It will make you more organized than 99% of people out there.

It’s nothing fancy. Yet all meaningful.

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