You end the meeting. You open your notes. You see:
- Discussed Q2 planning
- Sarah raised concerns about timeline
- Decision: revisit after more data
Three lines. Useless when you need them three weeks later.
Meeting notes fail because they capture what was said, not what matters. And by the time you need them, you won't remember the context that made it matter.
What Good Notes Look Like
Decisions, not discussions.
Write: "Decision: We're going with Option A for the launch. Option B was rejected because it requires more lead time than we have."
Not: "Discussed options."
Owners, not topics.
Write: "Owner: Marcus. Due: March 15. Next step: Finalize vendor contract."
Not: "Follow up on vendor stuff."
Context, not minutes.
Write: "We chose this approach because the alternative required a system overhaul that wasn't feasible in Q2. This is documented in the ADR from Feb."
Not: "Discussed architecture decision."
The Test
Read your notes six weeks after the meeting. Can you act on them without calling someone?
If yes, they're good. If no, they're useless.
The point of notes isn't to record what happened. It's to replace the meeting when you need to remember what was decided — and why.
Six weeks from now, you'll forget everything. Your notes won't.
Top comments (0)