Are you taking notes?

Has it been one of those weeks where you’ve lost count of how many meetings or conversations you’ve had?

Thankfully I’ve had a slower week when it comes to meetings and calls, after celebrating my wedding this past weekend and taking a few days off. But we’re back!

If you’re like me balancing multiple projects, client calls and team meetings, you know that keeping track of every decision, idea and action item isn’t always practical.

The sheer volume of information discussed, the action items that come up, and the plans that pivot mid-meeting — it’s often a lot to manage.

And if you’re a solo founder or part of a small team, this load gets heavier on you personally.

But you’re not alone.

Depending on the industry, employees spend about 1/3 of their workweek in meetings.

A staggering 92% of employees admit to multitasking during meetings, which can lead to missed information and decreased engagement.

Meeting overload is real. A survey showed that 55% of remote employees think that a majority of meetings could have been an email. But the meetings continue — we’re not here to solve that problem today.

One of the simplest, most effective ways to get more out of every single meeting, event or strategy session is using an AI note-taker.

This may not seem like a revolutionary hack, since people have been taking notes since meetings first existed. But I’ll share why it’s so key and some specific tools I’ve been using.

An essential tool, whether you’re an avid AI user or not

You may have mixed feelings about AI or worry that it’s coming for your job, but I’m here to tell you that AI note-takers can be a game-changer. They won’t do your work for you, but they do offer reliable, accurate transcription and note organization.

Over the the last couple of years, these tools have become invaluable for keeping me on top of the amount of meetings.

No matter what platform I’m on, whether it’s Google Meet, Zoom, or even hybrid meetings, I can record the conversation and trust that these tools will capture the details I need.

Capturing the details that matter

One of the biggest benefits of AI note-takers is that they allow you to focus on what’s being said without frantically scribbling notes or worrying about missing important points — from big-picture ideas to small action items.

Not only does this mean I have a reliable reference to go back to, but it also allows me to engage more actively in conversations. Plus once you’re 30+ meetings into the week, everything starts to blur together — so having clear, organized notes can really save you.

Instead of relying on memory or quick notes, you can refer to a full transcript that breaks down who said what and what the key takeaways are. It’s not just about keeping up or not having to remember, it’s about being able to extract more value from every conversation.

This way we can focus on what matters more — connecting, getting the right message across, and responding meaningfully.

Here are the AI note-taking tools I recommend

If you’re considering getting started, or are looking at other tools, here’s what I’ll recommend. There are a lot of options out there, but here are a few that I use regularly. Each offers slightly different features, so I recommend trying them to see what works best for your style.

And yes, they’re worth paying for (even though some have free versions).

• Fireflies integrates with multiple platforms and offers some powerful search and tagging features, making it easy to revisit specific topics later. There’s even an iPhone app, where I can look up notes, summaries and tasks. It connects to your calendar and automatically adds itself to your meetings and has lots of customizable settings, and has AI-Powered Search.

• Krisp isn’t known as a notetaker but it’s my favourite tool as it does a great job of summaries and to-do lists, and focuses on eliminating background noise, which can make for a much cleaner transcript — especially if you’re often in different locations and cafes like me. I love that it can join all apps on your computer that use a microphone, unlike some of the other tools here.

• Otter provides live transcription during calls and even identifies different speakers. I personally have switched to Fireflies and Krisp for this, but sometimes if I'm uploading audio from elsewhere to be transcribed, I do it through Otter.

• Oasis is not one I often use in meetings, but one I use to capture my ideas and thoughts, to be transcribed. It can also instantly convert what you’ve recorded into various formats — anything from an outline to a professional email to a text message or even a movie script (not as common of course).

If you’re looking for an easy way to improve your workflow, reduce stress (aren’t we all) and increase productivity, I recommend giving tools like this a try.

At the end of the day, AI is not replacing you (unless you’re a full-time in-person note-taker), instead, it’s enhancing your work by helping to ensure nothing gets missed and allows you to focus on what matters most.

And if you love taking notes with pen and paper, I get you — it’s still helpful to have a backup to keep things organized for you later 🙂 

Thanks for reading. Let’s meet.

Speaking of meetings and note-takers, I’d love to connect. You can book a one-on-one session with me here to work through any of your business ideas or marketing challenges — and yes, I’ll share the recording and note-taker results with you.

If you’d just like to say hello, you an also book a quick intro call with me here.