Taking detailed and organized meeting notes is crucial for productive meetings and effective follow-up. Google Calendar and Google Docs make it easy to create, share, and collaborate on meeting notes.
Prepare Meeting Notes Template in Google Docs
Create a Google Doc to use as your go-to meeting notes template. Include relevant headers and sections:
- Meeting title and date
- Attendees
- Agenda
- List meeting agenda items here
- Notes
- Take notes during the meeting under relevant agenda items
- Action items
- Track action items with owners and deadlines
- Decisions
- Log key decisions and resolutions
- Next steps
- Note any next steps discussed for follow-up
Save the Doc and name it something like “Meeting Notes Template”. You can now use this template for any meeting by making a copy.
Create Meeting Notes from Google Calendar
You can quickly create pre-populated meeting notes from any Google Calendar event.
When creating a new event, click Add description or attachments > Create meeting notes. This attaches meeting notes to the event, pulling in key details.
To generate notes for an existing event, open the event and click Take meeting notes. This creates a copy of your meeting notes template containing event details.
Collaborate on Meeting Notes
Meeting notes on Google Docs make collaboration seamless.
- Share notes with attendees: Click Share and add event guests so everyone can view and edit notes.
- Take notes together: Have multiple note takers with access to the Doc so nothing gets missed.
- Comment on notes: Use comments to clarify or add context to parts of the notes.
Sync Notes with Google Calendar
Changes made in your meeting notes Google Doc do not automatically sync with the connected Google Calendar event. However, you can manually update the event based on meeting notes.
Some things to sync:
- Attendees: If the attendee list changes, update the event guest list accordingly
- Agenda: If agenda items were reordered or changed, modify the event agenda
- Action items: Copy over any new action items into the event description
- Next meeting date: If a next meeting is discussed, create a follow-up event
Share Final Notes with Attendees
After the meeting, finalize notes and share with all attendees by:
- Cleaning up any stray notes or comments
- Ensuring all decisions and action items are clear
- Emphasizing any important next steps
- Emailing notes through the Docs share menu
- Attaching notes to the Calendar event
Attendees can refer back to notes later on, which is especially helpful for remote teams.
Best Practices for Meeting Notes
Follow these best practices to get the most out of your meeting notes:
- Use templates for a consistent structure meeting-over-meeting
- Note key details like decisions, action items, and next steps
- Share notes with attendees right after the meeting while everything is fresh
- Organize notes under agenda items to stay structured
- Follow up on notes by completing action items on time
Tips for Using Google Docs and Calendar Together
- Use the Google Docs calendar extension to quickly create notes from events
- Paste Calendar invite links into notes for easy access
- Create follow-up Calendar events based on next steps in notes
- Link important docs and slides into notes for reference
- Embed a Google Calendar agenda into a Doc to view upcoming meetings
- Use Google Drive shortcuts from Calendar to access relevant files
With some preparation and best practices, Google Calendar and Docs can help you become a master note taker. Well-organized and shared meeting notes lead to better collaboration, decisions, and follow-through.
