If you spend most of your meetings taking notes, you are not making the most out of the meeting. Sure, of course, obviously, there are exceptions. Put those aside for a bit, and read through for a bit of more context.

Plenty has been written about why taking notes is a good practice. It would be hypocritical from me to go in details on why you should do this considering that I’m guilty of not taking enough notes myself. The latter has more to do with my own habits and my note-taking skills than it does with my opinions about the process.

Nonetheless, I find it particularly rude when in a meeting (especially 1x1) the other part seems to be more interested in writing down everything I say rather than being present in the meeting, especially when I don’t have access to those notes. For meetings like this, I would find more effective for me to write everything down and send it over than spending 30 mins doing a status update over a call.

If you are an avid note taker, make sure you do it proportionally. Take time to be present in the meeting, to participate, to ask the right questions. I understand that taking notes can spark new questions and ideas, but extreme note taking does the opposite. It affects the curse of the meeting and, often times, makes it stall. Don’t be like me, tho, take some notes. I tend to do it after the meetings but, I must admit is not as effective.

As usual, it’s all about finding the right balance.