Michael Hyatt explains why we should be taking notes. (In both cases, I've included just his "headlines" - for more details, view Michael's original post).
- Note-taking enables you to stay engaged.
- Note-taking provides a mechanism for capturing your ideas, questions, and commitments.
- Note-taking communicates the right things to the other attendees.
More importantly, he offers four suggstions on how to more effectively take notes.
- Use a journal-formatted notebook.
- Keep your meeting notes as a running journal.
- Use symbols so you can quickly scan your notes later.
- Schedule time to review your notes.
I personally think #3 and #4 are the most important suggestions. I use both techniques extensively both at meetings and at school. Without review, your notes are inevitably trapped as input - and they need to be properly processed. As such, the review is particularly important because it allows you to take thoughts and turn it into reference material and action items. I make it a point to spend an hour or two every weekend cleaning up and processing my notes from the previous week's classes.
Of course, I would change #1 to "use a Tablet PC" - it makes the rest of the tips infinitely easier to implement. OneNote also has a number of built-in flags and offers Outlook integration.