Professional Meeting Journals- Unleash Your Potential in 2024

Professional meetings are necessary, and yet most in management will complain about them saying that there can be much improvement in terms of efficiency and productivity. This common complaint is usually solved by the simple act of taking meeting minutes. Most companies never learn how to properly do it, or train their management, and the problem persists. With the right professional meeting journals, you can turn that around. The meeting journal that should be considered should have the following five components in it.

• Professional style and look
• Easy reference index
• A Separate Action To-Do List Section
• Meeting Minutes Pages
• Frequent Ongoing Meeting Tracker

Why Trust Me?

I have been and continue to be a business consultant for the last 33 years. My experience in taking businesses to the next level of success often takes me to how a company conducts meetings. It’s one of several places that I can easily improve that has an almost immediate positive impact on the ROI of a company regardless of size.

Most meetings get sidetracked because they do not use a simple tool such as the right meeting journal. Dozens are out in the market. At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be much difference, but there is if you have a closer more detailed look at what is available. I will provide you with the information you need to transform your meetings into what they should be; an incubator for problem-solving and the tool that will catapult your company into the leader that you want it to be.

Style and Look of Professional Meeting Journals – why it matters!

I have often seen people choose a professional meeting journal that doesn’t fit the meeting their in. Either because of the bright cover or other aesthetic that conveys to the participants that you are not taking the meeting seriously. The impact will be on how meeting participants will engage with you. The right professional meeting journal is designed for many types of meetings, whether they are formal or informal. The flexibility allows you to take it to any type of meeting with the confidence that people will take you seriously.

Easy Reference Index – A time saver

When you are a part of many meetings, it is important for the meetings journal to have an easy index that allows you to quickly locate the meeting minutes of previous meetings and their notes. Flipping pages when you are trying to recall the discussions, agreements, and actions can be stressful especially when all eyes are on you while trying to locate its details. Oddly enough, most professional meeting journals do not have this feature. It is a feature that you will enjoy once you have it. There is simply less stress when you know you can easily locate any meeting quickly and easily.

A Separate Action To-Do List Section

This matters when you have a lot of meetings to track.

Imagine having a separate section in your meeting journal that keeps an ongoing list of all actions from all your combined meetings. A to-do list that is going which is cross-referenced with your index and meeting minute notes. Most professional meeting journals do not have this feature and instead have the person flipping pages of their meeting journal to locate the meeting and action items derived from it. A separate centralized section allows you to quickly review all action items and see which are outstanding and which have been completed. This is a time saver feature that will enable you to not only identify the outstanding action items but will also increase your productivity when you include the person’s name for easy follow-up.

Meeting Minutes Pages

A structured tool that will record all the necessary details of the professional meeting.

Although the basic meeting minute pages are in most meeting journals they are for basic meetings. Most don’t have a meeting facilitator name, timekeeper, person’s name who brought up the topic, and other such features. These features are necessary to record larger meetings such as company board meetings. It is important to understand the type of meetings you will attend. It is also important to have the flexibility to have the right structured pages for any meeting. Having well-structured pages with simple page prompts to fill in the blanks instead of trying to remember what is needed is a welcomed relief. Well-guided pages enable you to fill in blank sections. Vague page areas don’t provide enough guidance to reduce the anxiety of recording meetings properly.

Frequent Ongoing Meeting Tracker

Regardless of management position, most will have ongoing meetings to track progress or maintain an ongoing understanding of important KPIs. These ongoing meetings can be as frequent as daily, weekly, or monthly. Having a one-page frequent meeting location allows quick review for such meetings. Which improves your productivity and accountability. I have often seen meetings that start with an intention to meet frequently quickly go by the wayside because of busy schedules and attention to new issues. The result is that they are forgotten, and the company loses because the issues were never solved. A simple one-page meeting locator can decrease the likelihood of this happening. You can reference the page to see if you have had the meeting at the frequency of your intentions.

My Pick

The Konnect Meeting Minutes Journal is the only meeting journal that is designed to have the flexibility to be an asset in any type of meeting. It has all four types of pages mentioned above and comes in both paperback and hardcover. The hardcover one also has colored pages designed to make an immediate impact on anyone who glances at it. Both have approximately 300 pages to track many meetings. Their action items and progress are in one easy-to-use meeting book than other professional meeting journals.

Properly recorded meetings will reduce confusion and increase productivity. Studies show that our memory is not always correct. Not taking meeting minutes will lead to the deterioration of relationships from the confusion afterward. Choosing this Professional Meeting Journal will enable you to follow up on meeting action items easily. Recording meetings properly, and making your meetings productive. This has a direct positive impact on your performance, your company’s bottom line, as well as your professional credibility.

Conclusion

All companies should have a policy around important meetings. They should be recorded, and properly tracked. If it’s necessary to organize people together to solve or progress a company initiative forward then it should be required. Doing anything less isn’t being responsible with company resources, time, and money.