When is a Good Time to Write Meeting Notes?

Well-written meeting notes are an investment that will benefit your future self.

Thanks for stating the obvious. It's the nature of meeting notes that they're written for the future, not the present.

Ok, but how often, when writing meeting notes, do you think about your future self? And how often do you simply jot down what happened? Do you think about the needs of your future self (understanding the meaning and importance of what was written), or do you think abut the needs of your current self (writing down the essence of what happened)?

Good meeting notes go beyond just recording what happened. They capture the meaning behind it. They put essential discussions and decisions into context. You are aware of the context now, but you will most likely not be when you need the meeting notes.

The best time to write meeting notes is not during or immediately after a meeting, when the context is still fresh. Instead, it is when you need to recall not what was said and done, but why it was said and done. This is the first point in time when you can step into your future self, and interrogate your past self. And past-you can explain it to present-you, so that it can write it down for future-you.

For me, this point in time is 30 minutes to 2 hours after the meeting has ended.

Documentation takes time. For an information- and decision-dense meeting, it's not unlikely that documentation will take as long as the meeting itself.

Meeting notes no-one understands a month from now render the meeting itself pointless. It's as if it never took place. It was a waste of time.

Good meeting notes will save the impact of the meeting months after it took place. They will benefit people who attended the meeting and people who didn't likewise.

Write good documentation for significant meetings. If you don't, they will not be significant.