Notion’s Meeting Notes Template is So Good, You Don’t Even Need It

Include these three things in your meeting notes, and you’ll feel more organized before, during, and after each Zoom call—no matter what you use to take notes.
Matthew Ritchie
Advice
August 2, 2022
5 minute read

Notion knows what they’re going. 

In a few short years, the company has gone from near-bankruptcy to a valuation of $10 billion by creating a project management tool that’s now used by over four million people.

Part of that is due to their exhaustive collection of company and user-generated templates, which range from meal planning guides to checklists for managing Airbnbs. 

Much like the product itself, Notion’s templates are simple but effective—so simple, in fact, that you don’t even necessarily need Notion to use them.

Take Notion’s meeting notes template as an example.

It’s one of the more organized notetaking templates I’ve seen. 

Like other meeting templates in Notion, it’s straight and to the point: three sections, a couple of bullet points, and a few checkboxes.

But as the old saying goes, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”

Well, I hope you’re hungry because I’m going to take this simple format for writing meeting notes and teach you how to apply it anywhere. 

It could be in Notion. It could be in our app (currently in Beta). Wherever you want, really.

Let’s break it down.

Like other templates for taking meeting notes, it’s basically organized into three sections.

Section 1: Goals and Objectives

Including the goals of a meeting helps keep each meeting on track. These could be as general (e.g., brainstorm new marketing campaign ideas) or specific (e.g., decide which sales lead candidate to hire) as you like.

The goal of these goals (pardon the terrible wordplay) are to help guide the meeting, so you don’t lose focus and start discussing last night’s Better Call Saul (no spoilers, please!). 

Include goals and objectives in your meeting and agenda templates (especially if you’re organizing the meeting).

Section 2: Topics of Discussion

For this section of your meeting notes outline, you want to include anything that needs to be discussed. 

Similar to the first section, these could be questions that need to be addressed during the meeting. But they could also be questions that come up during the meeting (or used as a place to jot down any questions you have as the meeting progresses).

Follow the Outline Method and keep topics of discussion indented to the left and any answers or notes as a bullet point below each topic and indented to the right.

→ Further Reading: You’re Probably Taking Meeting Notes Wrong—Here’s a Quick Fix 

Section 3: Tasks

Finally, add a section for any tasks or to-dos discussed during the meeting that need to be completed afterward. These can be personal action items or ones that need to be assigned and shared with specific team members. Similar to the method above, add any extra details in bullet form underneath each task.

Wait, is that all?

Yep, that’s basically it.

Of course, you can add additional sections to your meeting notes template.

Elsewhere on their site, Notion recommends including a section for blockers that come up in your conversations and need to be addressed. If you’re creating a template for a weekly meeting, having a recap section seems like a good idea, too, so you can easily add it to the start of each new meeting and see what was previously discussed and needs to get done.

Other than that, you’re good to go. 

Happy fishing! 🎣

Struggling to take good meeting notes? Join the waitlist for Bloks' private Beta.

Whether you’re a sales superstar, in-demand consultant, busy recruiter, or someone who simply needs to schedule a lot of meetings, one thing’s for sure—you’ve probably booked a lot of them over the past two years.

Hybrid work has forced the majority of our meetings online, and while we appreciate being able to wear sweatpants during normal work hours, the time-consuming ballet that is sharing your availability, finding a time to meet, and adding it to your calendar isn’t quite as enjoyable. 

Speaking with everyone from solopreneurs to seasoned professionals, it seems like a lot of people find meeting scheduling software either costly, impersonal, or just plain boring. And Calendly and other alternatives don’t always cut it.

We hear you. 

Everyone is different, and so is how they work. Making good first impressions is important, and you shouldn’t have to pay a premium for them or basic customizations and integrations with your meeting booking system.

Nook Calendar’s meeting proposal feature is already used by tons of high-performing teams for selecting and proposing meeting times outside of their organization. 

Now, we’re making things even easier by letting you build personal pages with shareable calendar-booking links, right in Nook Calendar. Add them to your LinkedIn profile, email signature, website, or messages when finding a time to meet.

We think it’s the best meeting scheduling software out there, and we’re excited for you to give it a try, so let’s get started.

Here’s How to Set Up a Personal Booking Page in Nook Calendar

First off, if you’re new to Nook Calendar—hello! (If you’re already a Nook user, you can skip ahead.)

You’re going to start by syncing your calendar—either from Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook—and entering your work email address.

Once you approve any necessary permissions, you’ll set up your People Bar. Search for any connections and add the people you interact with the most when scheduling meetings.

From there, you can add any additional calendars you want to see (add your personal one, if you like, to further prevent any overlaps when scheduling meetings), integrate with Zoom (so you can launch calls straight from your calendar), and choose your preferred display setting—select Match OS, Light Mode, or Dark Mode.

Launch Nook Calendar, and you’re ready to set up your online meeting scheduler.

Now, the fun begins

You’re going to start by claiming your unique URL for sharing your meeting availability page. 

Your first name appears by default, but really, it can be anything. We recommend using your full name (e.g., /john-smith).

(You can always change your URL in the future, as long as it’s still available.)

From there, you want to complete your profile. 

Your profile pic is automatically pulled in from your Microsoft or GCal account.

But you can add your name, job title, welcome message, and links to social media profiles or professional website, so guests know a bit more about you when booking a meeting. 

Then, you can start setting your weekly availability.

Nook Calendar defaults to traditional time blocks—9–12 a.m. and 1–5 p.m. These are the hours someone can book a meeting from your personal page. Adjust them based on your availability. 

Your timezone is automatically set to your local time, but you can change it if you primarily work with people in a different timezone and it’s better to visualize that when setting your availability.

Choose which calendar you want to accept meetings in—it can only be booked in one, but Nook Calendar will automatically reference your availability in other calendars you’ve synced to prevent double-bookings when someone schedules a meeting.

Now, it’s time to set up some paramaters. 

You can set up your preferred meeting duration in either 15, 30, 45-minute or one-hour increments (or a custom time).

You can also add buffer time to give yourself a break between meetings, or set a lead time of up to 24 hours, so no one can book any last-minute meetings.

And you’re all set! You can preview what the page will look like, then share it with contacts or add it to your LinkedIn profile (we suggest adding it as a secondary URL), email signature, and anywhere else you do business.

Once someone books time in your calendar, you’ll receive an email and get a notification in the Pulse.

If you ever need to make any changes, you can access your personal meeting page in the bottom of the Magic Panel and make any adjustments—either to your weekly availability or personal information.

You can also remove your availability by simply creating events in Nook Calendar and marking them as Busy to block off time and prevent any bookings.

Nook Calendar’s new personal pages for sharing meeting availability are available on Web, iOS, and Android. 
If you have any questions or thoughts, we’d love to hear them. Hit us up in our Slack Community or contact us through Support.