How to improve meeting note taking?

Analyst here so as you can guess notes are my responsibility. The problem is my notes are ASS. I’ll admit I never really built a good habit of taking notes in school, so this is the result.

Any tips on how to improve? Especially when I don’t understand 50% of the things being said? Thanks all

 

Find a format of note taking that works for you, for me that’s bullet points. Often times people talk really fast so I try to write down key phrases where so I can go back and format things to where they make sense. You’ll get better with time and as you learn more of the technical side of things. Eventually, it’ll all start to come together, hope this helps.

 
Most Helpful

I was in the same boat as you when I was a 1st year. My associate would turn to me and be like "did you get all that?" I did not, in fact, "get all that" ...

So here's what I did, and it will probably work for you too.

  1. Up your typing speed: I used keybr.com, it's free and takes 10 mins per day. After a couple of weeks of consistent practice, you'll be able to type about as fast as whatever call is going on.
  2. Focus on raw capture: Just type out the literal words you're hearing. It's okay that you don't understand 100% of what's going on, just get it on paper
  3. Review in detail and organize: After the meeting, take 15 minutes to review the notes you took and organize them. Identify the topics that were discussed and put those in bold underline. Under each topic go the actual content of what was discussed in bullet form.
  4. (optional) Provided it's allowed and you aren't breaking any rules, you can also record your calls / meetings to refer back to the recording if you missed a chunk (it happens). You shouldn't need to do this, but I've seen other analysts and associates do it. Use your best judgment.

This is one of those things that doesn't always come naturally but can be built with practice. Happy to help more directly if needed, have been thinking of making a course video on this.

 

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