Quick Guide To Effective Meeting Minutes

Meetings are an important part of our professional lives. That is why taking meeting minutes is essential in a meeting. ✍👩🏼‍💻
Good minutes help everyone remember what was said, track any decisions, and clarify action items.
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But, how do take effective meeting minutes? 🤔

When I started as an Executive Assistant - to be honest, I had no clue how to take minutes.🤷🏼‍♀️ No one taught me how to do it!

I had to figure it out by myself, I constantly researched and tried to develop best practices. I believe putting new knowledge and new skills into practice is the best way of learning.👩🏼‍🎓

So, let me share with you some tips on how to take better meeting minutes to help you capture the essentials and make your meeting minutes more effective.🚀

Top Tips on Effective Meeting Minutes

✍ Reminder Alert: send reminders ahead of time to make sure everyone is present during the meeting.

✍ Set Agenda: must be specific and preferably results-oriented which helps guide the discussion.

✍ Use Note Taking app: some Apps such as Evernote, and OneNote can help to share and reorganize notes faster.

✍ Include key components: your co-workers who read the notes later will quickly find what they need.

✍Think about the future and summarize the conversation: while you’re taking minutes, ask yourself if what you’re writing will matter in the future if not, leave it out.

✍ Ask, Ask, Ask!: if it is your responsibility to take minutes in a meeting and someone uses a code word or abbreviation you haven’t heard before, or maybe they’re not as articulate as they could be. Ask for clarification!

✍ Deadlines: Always mention clear deadlines and a responsible person for each task: this will help easy follow up.

✍ Action Items: These are one of the most important parts of the meeting minutes. These are the tasks that must accomplish after the meeting. Therefore, the clearly defined tasks should be documented in the meeting minutes for follow-up and tracking purposes.

✍ If the meeting is re-occurring (weekly, monthly, etc.) mention the date and time of the next meeting at the bottom of the page.

✍ Lastly, send out the meeting minutes to the attendees, and if necessary CC concerned department heads who should be involved and aware as well.

I apply the above strategies to my minutes taking, if you have any other strategic tips let me know in the comments below! ⤵️