Over the years I've learned the value of active note taking in these meetings. Meaning: not minutes, not transcriptions or AI summaries, but me using my brain to actively pull out the key points in short form bullet-like notes, as the meeting is going on, as I'm talking and listening (and probably typing with one hand). This could be agenda points to cover, any interesting sidebars raised, insights gotten to in a discussion, actions agreed to (and a way to track whether they got done next time!).
It's both useful just to track what's going on in all these different meetings week to week (at one point I was doing about a dozen 1-1s per week, and it just becomes impossible to hold it in RAM) but also really valuable over time when you can look back and see the full history of a particular meeting, what was discussed when, how themes and structure are changing, is the meetings effective, etc.
Anyway, I've tried a bunch of different tools for taking these notes over the years. All the obvious ones you've probably used too. And I've always just been not quite satisfied with the experience. They work, obviously (it's just text based notes at the end of the day) but nothing is first-class for this usecase.
So, I decided to build the tool I've always felt I want to use, specifically for regular 1-1s and other types of regular meetings. I've been using it myself and with friends for a while already now, and I think it's got to that point where I actually prefer to reach for it over other general purpose note taking tools now, and I want to share it more widely.
There's a free tier so you can use it right away, in fact without even signing up.
If you've also been wanting a better system to manage your notes for regular meetings, give it a go and let me know what you think!
That means
- meetings notes are structured as entries, new entry in 1 click, with a template, with responsive structure
- easy to see who wrote what, everyone gets their own section
- first class action tracking and management of actions in one place
- distraction-free editor optimised for one-hand typing with only minimal formatting necessary to make notes tidy
- easier to search and navigate through history of notes
I think this applies for google docs but also other 'general' note taking tools and editors.