Why sit in front of a computer? That takes you out of the conversation and lessens the value of the meeting.

I take all my meeting notes on paper, then I put the pages into my physical inbox to process them later. Often that processing includes transcribing the notes digitally, and re-writing everything forces me to think more about what I wrote to see what it really means. In addition, I can scribble whatever I want all over the page during the meeting since I’m not worried about format until afterward.

Also, the processing step of course includes putting any relevant projects or actions into my system… which is an electronic/paper blend that deals mostly in printed-out index cards apart from my daily and weekly review sessions.

Thanks for the tips. I’ve tried paper but it just doesn’t work for me for a number of reasons:

• I can type a lot faster than I can write. Someone noted that if I wrote by hand, I’d be more involved in the meeting. My experience has been just the opposite. I’m much more involved if I’m on a computer, as I take less time taking notes. I have better eye contact with all participants if I’m on a computer, because I don’t have to look at the computer as much when I’m typing. I have to look at the paper the whole time I’m writing by hand in order to stay in the lines. :) Furthermore, everyone at our meetings has a laptop open, so I’m not the only one.

• My hand gets crampy after writing for a while, even after trying every ergonomic pen and writing technique out there. (This problem is probably due to my very limited range of wrist flexion, an anatomical quirk I was born with.)

• Since I got a laptop, I’ve made a goal of going as paperless as possible. If my notes are going digital eventually, why not just take them digitally? Transcribing them after the fact was, for me, a waste of time.

I prefer to write by hand in meetings as well - I am not paper based for anything else, but I don’t deal well with computer based mindmapping tools.

By far my favorite capture tool for that was an old Electrovaya slate style tablet. 8 hours of battery life, lies flat so it isn’t obtrusive during a meeting. I got all the free form benefits of paper with the ability to draw lines at will and go back and margin notes easily. And the added benefits of being able to select and drag chunks of notes around to sort them was great, as was having all my handwritten notes machine searchable. Unfortunately I’ve largely abandoned it because I’ve been needing my Mac laptop and won’t carry both.

For cases where needing to type mattered, I found a portable keyboard for a PDA to be a benefit, since it gets the speed but doesn’t have the barrier effect of a laptop screen.

I am dreaming of a convertible Mac tablet - that would really give me all my favorite features of tools I’ve tried in one item.

I was just reading through “I’m very lazy…” about using a digital camera like the Canon Ixus to take photos for going paperless. Has anyone out there had any experience using OCR to to read photographed documents?

NB4L

I have been taking notes by mapping topics during meetings. Then I convert them to text, editing, organising and linking them before publication for three years. Using MindManager on a Tablet PC is not intrusive (or at least no one has ever told me it is). I find this fast and effective.

You can also add sketches of flip charts and presentation slides.

Make sure everyone, and I mean everyone, is okay with you using a computer to take notes. I had a very awkward experience two weeks ago, with an executive VP asking if I should be in a meeting because he thought I was just checking my email.

I was of course taking notes on my wiki, which I then edited and distributed to the rest of the meeting participants.

Sigh Some people will never learn