Tips on making notes during meetings and standups?
Posted by uchiha_building@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 23 comments
Hello fellow devs, as someone with ADHD it has helped me a fair bit by making notes while listening in on meetings and when someone explains stuff to me on a call.
I stuck with regular pen and paper, but I would like to have a tool that enables me to look it up by searching instead of going through notes that were frankly scribbled haphazardly.
I've been using my personal Confluence space and create separate pages for each day, but I'm curious if there's a better way
matthedev@reddit
Stand-ups aren't worth memorializing with notes.
uchiha_building@reddit (OP)
I mean they're not all standups, most of it is knowledge transfer
cuntsalt@reddit
Write it down. Your memory retains more things through the actual physical act of writing. If someone is trying to move things along while you are still writing, tell them "hold please, need to take a note." Then repeat the note back to them to make sure you got it correctly. If you need it digitized, put it into whatever digital format you need after the meeting is done.
AI summaries suck ass. They are inaccurate, mishear and hallucinate things, and don't cut fluff, resulting in a painfully long and painfully bad summary.
I've found probably 60% of meetings don't need to happen in the first place, 20% are "feeler" conversations trying to determine a direction, and the remainder has one big takeaway. Of that, probably half of the meetings will be repeated in some format or another (another meeting or three, a ticket, etc.).
I used to be fanatical about notes but I honestly don't even do it much anymore and I haven't suffered.
metaphorm@reddit
use a transcription bot for zoom calls. you'll get a written record of the conversation (pretty accurate most of the time) to go over it later if necessary.
I also use pen and paper. I keep paper notes throughout the day and transfer the most relevant of them (which is like 10% of them on a good day) to a Notion document for ongoing notes that are relevant beyond the few hours of time when I first took the note. I organize the notion document by week, so each week has a set of notes. The weeks go into collapsible headers so I can easily hide old notes and just look at the current week. This avoids the trouble of having a lot of different documents to keep track of. It's all in one place.
uchiha_building@reddit (OP)
hmm, this might be viable. i'm gonna try it for a bit.
Kitchen_Archer_@reddit
Maybe try VOMO AI. It records and auto-summarizes meetings so you can focus and just look stuff up later. Super handy.
PothosEchoNiner@reddit
I’m on Mac so I use the Notes app for this
gemengelage@reddit
Most people at my workplace use Obsidian. It's free, markdown-based and horribly customizable. Tons of plug-ins.
It's alright.
DrowningInTheEyes@reddit
Honestly, I just zone out. And then when meeting ends, I scramble my head for good 5-10 minutes trying to list all my tasks in ToDo.
RayBuc9882@reddit
I use VS Code with the Dendron plugin. Been using it for two years, was using OneNote before that. It’s cross-platform so I use it on my work’s windows machine and my personal Linux machine.
tonjohn@reddit
How does this compare to Obsidian?
RayBuc9882@reddit
I am not familiar with it
aseradyn@reddit
My go-to is to take notes with pen and paper. Then, after the discussion, I sit down and type them into a doc/app
I find the process of retyping my notes helps me clarify them, and also helps me remember them better, so I'm less likely to need to go back to them.
nsxwolf@reddit
I just use iPad Pro, magic pencil and Apple Notes. It indexes my notes just fine.
69-Dankh-Morpork-69@reddit
markdown and a git repo for all of my note taking needs.
bonus points it makes DND notes easily shareable and collaborative.
uchiha_building@reddit (OP)
DND notes?
69-Dankh-Morpork-69@reddit
like a meeting you're in for fun with your friends.
D_D@reddit
Are they in person meetings or on Zoom?
I really like Granola because it doesn't join the meeting.
uchiha_building@reddit (OP)
zoom meeting from the office lol. I'll have to look into Granola, can't claim to have heard about it.
ChutneyRiggins@reddit
Google Docs. I use it all of the time for meetings, webinars, etc.
uchiha_building@reddit (OP)
i tried the Mac Notes app for a bit. then I realized I really miss drawing arrows going from one thing to the other.
alkbch@reddit
If you like to take notes with pen and paper, scan them afterwards and turn them into a searchable PDF, for example with the excellent QuickScan app.
Alternatively, you can use a software like Krisp.ai to connect directly to your meeting and transcribe notes for you.
uchiha_building@reddit (OP)
i do like this sort of solution, but truthfully, I don't trust myself to do the follow up work. It will simply slip out of my mind.