What Are Meeting Notes?

Meeting notes are the more informal and less structured meeting document. Your meeting note serves solely as a personal or team-specific record of the discussion, focusing on key points, ideas, and action items, but this time, in a rough way. Meeting notes are typically used for internal purposes and may not follow a strict format. The format should be in line with your own personal preference - whatever style helps you to have a better meeting.

How to Take Meeting Notes

Taking meeting notes is a more flexible process compared to minutes. However, here are a few of our guideline recommendations:

1. Prepare Ahead:
   • Review the meeting agenda and identify areas of focus. For example, for a meeting with your manager, your 1 on 1 meeting agenda might prompt you to focus on and prepare monthly data.
   • Use a meeting notes template if available, or create a rough one yourself. This will undoubtedly help you to be more productive and organized, even if you only plan on scribbling a few notes down.
2. During the Meeting:
   • Have your AI note taker at the ready. Again, if you do so, you can ignore the next 4 bullet points, as this software will pick up on all of the essential details for you. Personally, I use Bubbles, and it has been a real game changer. I am able to focus on the meat of the discussion without even needing to pick up a pen once.
   • Anyway, this is important if you plan on doing this manually:
   • Capture key points and ideas discussed.
   • Note any action items, decisions, and deadlines.
   • Use bullet points or shorthand for quick note-taking.
   • Focus on what is relevant to you or your team.
3. After the Meeting:
   • Organize your notes and highlight important information.
   • Share the notes with relevant team members.
   • Use the notes to follow up on action items and next steps.

Different Types of Meeting Notes

I've referenced a few different ways that people like to take their meeting notes. In general, there are various types of meeting notes, depending on the context and purpose:

• Brainstorming Notes: Capture ideas and creative thoughts during brainstorming sessions.
• Project Meeting Notes: Focus on project-specific discussions, updates, and action items.
• One-on-One Notes: Record key points from individual meetings with team members, stakeholders, or your boss or manager.

Difference Between Meeting Minutes and Notes

Formality

• Meeting Minutes: Formal and structured, often required or used extensively for official records.
• Meeting Notes: Informal and flexible, used for personal or team reference.

Content

• Meeting Minutes: Include detailed records of discussions, decisions, and action items.
• Meeting Notes: Focus on key points, ideas, and relevant information to you or a team member.

Purpose

• Meeting Minutes: Serve as an official record for accountability and reference. This is the area where you capture exactly what was said.
• Meeting Notes: Aid in personal or team organization and follow-up.

What Is the Difference Between Meeting Minutes and Transcripts?

Meeting Minutes

• Summarized Content: Minutes provide a concise summary of the meeting, capturing key points and decisions.
• Structured Format: Follow a specific format, including date, time, attendees, and agenda items.

Transcripts

• Verbatim Record: Transcripts are a word-for-word record of the entire meeting.
• Detailed and Lengthy: Include every spoken word, making them longer and more detailed than minutes.

Using Bubbles Notetaker for Both

Bubbles Notetaker is a versatile tool that can be used for both meeting minutes and notes. By automatically joining, recording, and transcribing virtual meetings, Bubbles ensures that no detail is missed.

Above, I have shown two screenshots. The first is your meeting minutes via Bubbles. This comes in a follow-up email, and is a comprehensive recap, including action items and key points. The second is your full transcript via Bubbles. As you can see, the transcript appears alongside the video recording of the meeting. Whatever you wish to achieve when note taking, this is a valuable tool for any type of meeting documentation.

Conclusion

So, you should now understand the differences between meeting minutes and notes, which is going to be essential for great meeting documentation. We hope that you have come away from this article being a master of the art of taking meeting minutes and notes, especially by using Bubbles from here on in!