Depending on the job you are doing, you are likely going to be taking a lot of notes during the course of the day. It might be a few points that come up during a meeting, an idea you are working through in detail, or something you want to quickly jot down before you forget it.
Pick Your Digital Notebook
There are many different digital notebook solutions out there, so feel free to experiment with them and settle on the one you like. Personally, I use Microsoft OneNote and that works great for me. Evernote is also another popular choice.
There are different ways you can organise your notebooks. You can do it by project, by job responsibility, etc. For instance, I have notebooks called Sales, Marketing and General, each subdivided into sections and pages. Think about what works best for you, and you can always rearrange them in most good digital notebook tools.
Keep it in The Right Place
While tools like OneNote are great, there may be more appropriate software for the kind of notes that you are capturing. Anything that’s actually a task should go into your task list, whether that’s in Outlook or another relevant app. If you are taking notes from a client sales meeting, then that should probably go into your CRM system if you have one. If you have a corporate wiki, then some notes might need to be added into there in order to be more widely accessible to your colleagues. These are just a few examples. The only things that should be kept in a digital notebook-type solution are notes that are only meant for you to use.
Use a Real Notepad
Alongside using a digital notebook, a great approach is to also keep a physical notepad next to you at all times. I prefer a simple A4 yellow legal pad. In this digital age, the purpose is not to have a complex notebook/folder with dividers etc as permanent storage. Everything you want to keep will be going into your digital notebook or other system. But nothing (for now, anyway) beats pen and paper for jotting down quick notes during a virtual meeting or call or putting down your thoughts/ideas/designs. Make sure you capture anything important into your digital notebooks/project documents before shredding the paper notes. Again, the paper pad is a convenience device, not a way of organising your notes. Have it ready to hand next to your PC at all times.
Taking Notes During a Virtual Meeting
A good approach to take during meetings is to have a digital notebook page ready for the meeting with your agenda and any points you want to make (you would get this ready during your meeting planning time that you booked!). You can refer to this page on-screen during the call. If any points come up that you want to remember, write them down on your notepad. Sure, you could type them straight into the digital page right away, but (a) typing while listening can actually be quite distracting, and (b) the people you are talking to can see you are turning to the side and writing, which shows you are paying close attention to what they are saying! When the meeting is over, scan your notes and transfer anything important into your meeting notes, task list, or relevant document, as appropriate.
Use a Second Monitor
If you can add a second monitor to your setup, then you could open up your OneNote or other notebook app on that screen. This makes it easy to glance at your notes while in a virtual meeting without having to fiddle with switching apps. Note that the downside is that you’re having to look away, which can also be distracting for people and give the impression that you aren’t paying full attention.
Taking Notes During an In-Person Meeting
If you’re meeting in person, then yes, you could take along your laptop and take notes digitally. However, I feel that having laptops open while sitting across from each other adds a kind of psychological barrier (literally, you have laptop screens open, which create ‘walls’ between participants) and you end up looking at the screen instead of each other. Take along your notepad and jot down your notes; if you need to take along notes or an agenda, write them down on the notepad.
If you really don’t want to use the paper notepad, then try a tablet with an electronic pen. Tablets are much better for this scenario as they take up less space and lie flat on the table, just like a paper notepad.
Digital/Analogue Hybrids
The simplest way of transferring those physical notes into your digital notebook is of course to type them out manually. Often, this really is the best way, as you might only need to capture a couple of things rather than every single word you wrote down. Minimising information overload is a good thing! Sometimes, however, you may well want to record as much as possible that came out of a meeting. In these cases, to save time, you could use an app like Office Lens to take a photo of the page and capture it directly into your notebook. Office Lens and similar apps work really well by precisely capturing the page itself and not any surrounding background. Handwriting recognition nowadays is actually pretty good as well, and you might find that it neatly transcribes your notes into your digital notebook pages for you.
Another choice that’s growing in popularity is a special notepad with reusable wipe-clean pages that can be easily captured and transferred to your digital notebook using a dedicated app. I got one as a Christmas present and tried it out, and it was fine until my daughter got a hold of it and decided to scribble crayons all over it.... If you want to splash out a bit more, there are also special pens available with built-in cameras and Wi-Fi that automatically read your handwriting and send it to your digital notebook ‘as you write.’