Using the instructions below, you can build your own regex so you can easily highlight a custom ai banned word set (hello “delve” – I see you) and decide if you want to edit it out.

Steps

Copy Keywords List

Modify as needed (maybe you like to keep some words in and add other ai banned words) Credit goes to Casey Keith for coming up with this initial list

Additionally,As an AI,last knowledge,As well as,Beacon,Bombastic,Boost,Buckle up,By the same token,Comparatively,Conclusion,Correspondingly,Demystified,Discover,Delve,Elevate,Embrace,Enhance,Equally,Ever-evolving,Explore,Finally,First,Generated by AI,Get ready,Gone are the days,Hitherto,Identically,In light of,In the sea of,Labyrinth,Leverage,Likewise,Look no further,Maximize,Navigating,Nested,Not to mention,Now lets move on,Overall,Picture this,Plethora,Realm,Remember that,Shed light,Similarly,Solace,Starting a sentence with By,Switching gears,To say nothing of,Together with,Top-notch,Treasure,Uniquely,Unleash,Unlock,Various,When it comes to,Whilst,Whimsical,addition,crucial,digital landscape,digital world,embark,essential,go deeper,important,innovative,journey,ultimate guide,unveil,transition,deep dive,dive in,ensure,optimal,assessing,strive,comprehensive,we know,we understand,testament,captivating,eager,refreshing,edge of my seat,breath of fresh air,to consider,it is important to consider,there are a few considerations,its essential to,vital,its important to note,it should be noted,to sum up,in terms of,with regard to,its worth mentioning,its interesting to note,significantly,notably,essentially,as such,therefore,thus,interestingly,in essence,noteworthy,bear in mind,its crucial to note,one might argue,its widely acknowledged,predominantly,from this perspective,in this context,this demonstrates,arguably,its common knowledge,undoubtedly,this raises the question,in a nutshell,in today's, digital age, digital era, era, age

Use Chat GPT to write a Regex

Here’s the prompt

build me a regex for google doc so I can find (control + F) and highlight all of these words:
[insert your cusotm word list here]

The output should be something similar to the output below. You may need to regenerate it a few times if it doesn’t work or just manually modify the one below.

(?:\bAdditionally\b|\bAs an AI\b|\blast knowledge\b|\bAs well as\b|\bBeacon\b|\bBombastic\b|\bBoost\b|\bBuckle up\b|\bBy the same token\b|\bComparatively\b|\bConclusion\b|\bCorrespondingly\b|\bDemystified\b|\bDiscover\b|\bElevate\b|\bEmbrace\b|\bEnhance\b|\bEqually\b|\bEver-evolving\b|\bExplore\b|\bFinally\b|\bFirst\b|\bGenerated by AI\b|\bGet ready\b|\bGone are the days\b|\bHitherto\b|\bIdentically\b|\bIn light of\b|\bIn the sea of\b|\bLeverage\b|\bLikewise\b|\bLook no further\b|\bMaximize\b|\bNavigating\b|\bNested\b|\bNot to mention\b|\bNow lets move on\b|\bOverall\b|\bPicture this\b|\bPlethora\b|\bRealm\b|\bRemember that\b|\bShed light\b|\bSimilarly\b|\bSolace\b|\bStarting a sentence with By\b|\bSwitching gears\b|\bTo say nothing of\b|\bTogether with\b|\bTop-notch\b|\bTreasure\b|\bUniquely\b|\bUnleash\b|\bUnlock\b|\bVarious\b|\bWhen it comes to\b|\bWhilst\b|\bWhimsical\b|\baddition\b|\bcrucial\b|\bdigital landscape\b|\bdigital world\b|\bembark\b|\bessential\b|\bgo deeper\b|\bimportant\b|\binnovative\b|\bjourney\b|\bultimate guide\b|\bunveil\b|\btransition\b|\bdeep dive\b|\bdive in\b|\bensure\b|\boptimal\b|\bassessing\b|\bstrive\b|\bcomprehensive\b|\bwe know\b|\bwe understand\b|\btestament\b|\bcaptivating\b|\beager\b|\brefreshing\b|\bedge of my seat\b|\bbreath of fresh air\b|\bto consider\b|\bit is important to consider\b|\bthere are a few considerations\b|\bits essential to\b|\bvital\b|\bits important to note\b|\bit should be noted\b|\bto sum up\b|\bin terms of\b|\bwith regard to\b|\bits worth mentioning\b|\bits interesting to note\b|\bsignificantly\b|\bnotably\b|\bessentially\b|\bas such\b|\btherefore\b|\bthus\b|\binterestingly\b|\bin essence\b|\bnoteworthy\b|\bbear in mind\b|\bits crucial to note\b|\bone might argue\b|\bits widely acknowledged\b|\bpredominantly\b|\bfrom this perspective\b|\bin this context\b|\bthis demonstrates\b|\barguably\b|\bits common knowledge\b|\bundoubtedly\b|\bthis raises the question\b|\bin a nutshell\b|\bin today's\b|\bdigital age\b|\bdigital era\b|\bera\b|\bage\b|\Delve\b|\Labyrinth\b)

Highlight ban words in google doc

• open your google doc with your copy
• command+f / control+f to open the find and replace window

1. Paste your regex from above (see image below)
2. Check the “use regular expression […]” option
3. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate

Edit your Copy

1. The dark green highlight is the current word (see image below)
2. type the word in this field you want to replace or click next to ignore
3. Click Replace when ready. Do Not Replace All.

Then continue from word to word and decide if you want to replace it.

With customer communication tools, it doesn’t need to be this way. In this article, I break down the software you should use to delight and gain insights from your customers.

Why You Must Understand Your Customer

With the rise of AI, content production has skyrocketed through the roof. While this is exciting for marketers, often, the customer is left behind in wondering why the email they are reading doesn’t address their needs.

This is how brands lose prospects or, worse, customers.

Here are just a few advantages to understanding your customer:

• Identify sales and marketing qualified leads, saving your sales team time.
• Marketing campaigns will have a better chance of meeting and exceeding targets.
• Anticipate your customer’s needs before they even have them – showing that you’re actually listening to them.
• Simply, to retain your customers and attract better ones.

Best Customer Communication Software

Personalized Video Software

There are more creative ways to communicate with customers than just the usual email. Personalized video gives that extra touch and shows your customers you took the effort to get to know them, and sometimes, that’s all it takes to get a response.

List of Video Software

• Loom – record short-form video with ease. Use these videos to record personalized videos for prospects and customers.
• Videoask – fun personalized video with the ability to add calls to action.

Social listening software

Stay in tune with your audience by implementing social listening software. Advantages include:

• Monitoring the online conversation: You can find out if your audience is mentioning your competitors or your brand and how the sentiment is based on the conversations.
• Identify customer needs: People can often be unfiltered online, especially on anonymous platforms. Collecting this feedback can help inform your future marketing efforts.
• Improve customer service: Are you seeing the same conversations about your brand’s lack of service in a particular area? These can become low-hanging fruit of issues to solve for your customers.

List of Social Listening Software

• Brandwatch
• BuzzSumo
• Keyhole

Chatbot software

Chatbots come in all different sizes now with the assistance of AI. Traditional chatbots were more logic based while the latest versions are fully trained through natural language processing.

The best chatbots have features that allow you to give help desk answers for customers as well as the ability to have a human jump in.

List of Chatbot Software

• Tidio – Best for combining AI and human support
• Crisp.chat – Best for small businesses – Read the Review
• Intercom – Best for enterprise, now powered with AI as well
• Chatbase.co – Great entry level NLP powered chatbot – Read the Review

Survey Software

This strategy has been around for decades and that’s because it works. Customers need to be given the chance to voice their experience and it’s often in the most positive and negative feedback, where you can find the gold nuggets.

Surveys let your brand:

• Get the necessary feedback for your product. This is particularly crucial for early start-ups.
• Measuring customer satisfaction. The best way to keep customers is to keep a pulse on what is and fix what isn’t working.
• Craft personalized experiences. By understanding what resonates with your customers, you have a higher chance to improve the “delight” factor with them.

List of Survey Software

• Tally.so – My all-time favorite form builder. If you’re a notion fan, this is the best form option.
• SurveyMonkey – The most customizable (and popular) survey software on the market
• Google Forms – Used by many corporations of all sizes due to its ease of use and straightforward UI
• Typeform – Best-designed forms on the market and widely supported integrations

Tips for Understanding Customers

We just went through a list of software to help you get in contact with your customers. Now let’s talk about what we can potentially do with the information we’ve learned.

Review Key Data Points

Particularly for e-commerce brands. Understanding purchase history and intent is key to understanding your customers. If you know a segment always purchases around the same time each year, consider a proactive approach in reaching out (even better if it’s personalized) and give them a special coupon code.

Avoid Overpersonalization

We’ve all been there. We clicked on a link in our Whatsapp group and suddenly we have sneaker ads following us around. It’s annoying.

Yes, it is possible to overdo personalization. Even something as simple as “Welcome back” can make people feel like they are being followed around on the internet.

Make sure you just do a sense check before sending out your communication and ask yourself, “will they wonder how we know this about them?” Which brings us to the next point.

Put Yourself in Their Shoes

By simply running through the same user experience as a prospect and customer, you can catch a lot of errors and issues. Just try it once before pressing the publish button on your campaign.

Ask open-ended Questions and Listen

You can learn a lot if you get a chance to listen to a customer in real-time. Ask questions like

• Why did you choose our product/service?
• Do you use a product similar to ours?
• What was the most frustrating thing about our product/service?
• Could you provide an example?

Wrapping up

In conclusion, understanding your customers is crucial for the success of your marketing efforts. By utilizing customer communication software, such as personalized video, you can gain valuable insights and connect with your audience in a more meaningful way.

By prioritizing customer understanding, you can improve sales, meet targets, anticipate needs, and ultimately retain and attract better customers.

As a hybrid worker, I’ve held down 9-5 jobs and freelance work for nearly a decade now. In my experience, trying to balance the two is difficult at the best of times.

Some of these remote working tips are specific to working from home and others are general remote tips. Whether you’re just getting into it, or you’re a standing desk warrior, you’ll be sure to find something useful here.

Find the Ideal Work Area for Flow State

When you first begin remote working you won’t know what the best work setup is. This includes your equipment, software, or even the physical location.

This is what I mean by “finding your flow” space. I found out that I was more productive with certain tasks in specific rooms of my apartment.

It turns out the workstation in the living room that I use for my 9-5 was not a good place to write my blog articles. Instead, I moved to my standing desk in the den.

This type of insight took a few tries to iron out but was worth it as now I have a consistent routine for writing that gets my daily tasks checked off.

Set Strict Time Boundaries

Once you get into a regular routine you’ll want to be sure you set a strict time to log off. When you simply work through the day, it can be tempting to keep working.

The challenge with this is that you won’t be able to tell when you’re working and not working and the entire day can just feel like work.

We all need to take breaks and having a time when we are done with work helps prepare us for the next part of our daily routine whether that be workouts or family time.

This also mimics the schedule you would have if you were working for someone else which helps those around you understand when not to disturb you and when it is ok to have regular conversations.

Do Not Disturb Time in Your “Office”

One of the biggest challenges of working at home is that if you live with anyone (roommates, partners, children) it can seem like you are always available for a “quick chat.”

These little chats not only steal your time away from what you need to get done, but interruptions will reset the time it takes you to get back into a flow state.

It’s important to discuss with everyone you live with when you are available to have conversations and when you should not be disturbed. Communicating boundaries of time early will help reduce distractions and stress.

Set Do Not Disturb On Your Phone

I’ve worked with do not disturb or focus mode enabled on my iPhone for over 2 years straight. I never take phone calls. It always goes to voicemail.

This is mainly due to the fact that 99% of my phone calls are junk and I found before doing this I kept answering calls hoping it would be important.

Turns out that if someone really needs to get a hold of you, they will either text or call multiple times. Then I will return the call and add them to my phone contacts so they show up properly when I screen.

Warning though, this can get you into trouble with your partner so be sure to add them to the exception list.

Turn off Phone Notifications

Similarly, I have two screens of apps on my iPhone.

My main and first screen has all of my common apps. I don’t allow any notifications on this screen as it would distract me because I need to check things on my phone like 2-factor authentication to do my work.

My second screen (when I swipe left) will have the apps I allow notifications on, but even these I rarely turn on.

Setup the Right Software Tools

There needs to be an entire article just dedicated to this topic, but to summarize when running an online business or working for a company remotely, you need at least the following software

• Video Conferencing – I recommend either Zoom or Google Chat (was Google Hangouts)
• Invoicing App – Wave is free to invoice and is perfect for smaller businesses and integrates with accounting software to
• Professional Email – Depending on the type of service you are selling, you likely want to sign up for a professional email. I recommend Google Workspace. The other advantage of this is you can easily separate business from personal.
• Setup a Website – Unless you are working for a company remotely, you will need some sort of web presence no matter what your business is.
• Note-taking app – Finally, you’ll need some sort of area to take and organize notes which brings us to the next tip
• Instant Messaging App – If you’re managing a remote team, you’ll need a way to keep in chat communication. I recommend Slack or Discord as these are the most common tools that freelancers have used in the past.

Use Note Taking Apps

Throughout your day you’re going to come across ideas, websites, quotes, you name it and you’re going to need a place to put all of this data.

Some people call this a second brain. The idea is, you need a way to quickly recall all of the information you collect throughout the day.

That’s why having a note-taking app is essential for any knowledge worker.

These are the apps I recommend:

Notion.so – available on all devices including iOS and Android. Notion is my go-to note-taking app because it scales into an entire content management system and is completely free. I also project manage clients using this app.

iOS Note app – If you need something light, the native Notes app on your iPhone is an easy way to transfer notes between your phone and workstations.

Bear (iOS only) – If you need a more robust note-taking app, but not as heavy as Notion, Bear is a great alternative.

Use a Password Manager

If you’re the type to just remember three security levels of passwords for every single app in your life. It’s time to upgrade your password-managing processes.

The password manager I recommend is Bit Warden because a while back LastPass moved to a model where they required two different accounts to move between mobile and desktop apps.

So now, I manage all of my passwords with Bit Warden which allows me to:

• Easily and securely store my passwords in an app across all of my devices (mobile, desktop, tablet). Adding a new entry into the password manager takes less than a minute and you never need to remember the password again.
• Generate long and unique passwords. Often websites will now require a specific number of characters as well as use special characters.
• Allows me to never have to remember passwords again. I just navigate to a website, click the password, and have it auto-fill in.

Work in Natural Light

Working in natural light has benefits like improving your sleep patterns which help with overall health. These benefits will extend through the evenings as you head to bed and help with regulating your sleep pattern.

Furthermore, this Harvard Business Review article mentions:

In fact, this research revealed that workers in daylight office environments reported a 51% drop in the incidence of eyestrain, a 63% drop in the incidence of headaches and a 56% reduction in drowsiness.

Invest in Ergonomic Office Equipment

It’s easy to see these as expenses, and from a tax perspective that’s a good thing since you can write off these purchases, but creating the right type of office setting is pivotal to your health when working remotely (and even in the office).

Review all of the following equipment to see if any of it is causing your body stress and replace it accordingly. Work these into your work budget so you can monitor your purchases throughout the year.

Standing Desks

If you haven’t tried a standing desk, I highly recommend trying it out for a few months. I find, I have less lower back pain and am able to focus more while I stand.

There are so many options between manual and automated that there is sure to be a desk for everyone’s budget.

And don’t forget about a comfortable ergonomic office chair for those times when you get tired of standing.

Adjustable Monitor Stands

Adjustable monitor stands help you place your monitors in the exact position for your eye height. This supports your body by preventing your head from looking too low or high at your monitors.

The ideal placement of the monitor should be just below your eye level and you should feel comfortable looking straight and working for an hour at a time.

Monitors

Similarly, you may want to invest in monitors that have ergonomic features such as tilt, swivel positions, and height adjustability.

Some monitors also boast blue light filters which can reduce eyestrain. This feature is particularly useful if you have to stare at a monitor for several hours at a time to reduce eye fatigue.

You can check out the best type of monitor based on your needs here.

Ergonomic Keyboard and Mouse

Improving your wrist and hand positions is just as important as your standing posture.

Ergonomic mice and keyboards will do just this by encouraging you to place your hands in a more natural position to reduce hand and wrist strain.

When your hands have less stress, your productivity will increase as well as your typing stamina.

Many ergonomic keyboards and mice also offer customization options to adjust to your particular position so you can have the most comfortable and efficient position for your hands.

Setup an Appointment Process

If part of your business model requires you to have meetings regularly, you’ll want to invest in an appointment app like Calendly.

Calendly is a scheduling app that helps users schedule appointments easily with clients or colleagues. Based on your Google Calendar, the app can show availability customized to your exact criteria.

Register Your Business

When you’re first starting out, you don’t need to register your business right away, but as soon as you start making regular sales, I recommend registering your business.

You’ll get a few advantages like:

Legal Protection

Depending on the type of work you do, you may want legal protection. Certain types of business entities can help with this.

Tax Write-Offs

One of the key benefits of registering your business is that you can start writing off your expenses like:

• automobile expenses – your car lease and gas can be written off
• food expenses – meals with clients can be a write-off
• office equipment – all of the hardware like desks, computers, etc.
• office space – if you rent or even have a dedicated home office, it’s possible to claim this as a business expense
• software – all of the software you need to run your business is eligible for write-offs
• professional development – purchasing online courses and subscriptions can be written off
• Lower tax brackets – in most states and provinces you will pay lower taxes as a corporation

Registering your business also just gives you more credibility as a real company so you can be taken seriously when you are talking with prospects.

None of this information is meant to be legal or tax advice so please contact your local business advisor or online service to check your local requirements based on your personal needs.

Daily Work Routine

Think about all of the things you do on autopilot when you wake up, brush your teeth, go to the bathroom, and get coffee.

A daily work routine extends this concept further so that you can reserve more of your brain power for creative tasks like writing and brainstorming.

Your productivity will increase when you reduce the time of thinking about what to do next. After you spend a few weeks working out the routine that gives the most energy, stick to it for a few months and adjust as you go (make use of those note-taking apps).

Daily routines will help you get organized and reduce stress.

Taking Regular Breaks

Similarly, taking breaks will give your eyes and muscles the much need rest you need. In turn, you can stay more focused and productive.

Your stress level, both mental and physical will reduce with regular break times.

Use your phone’s timer app and voice assistant (“Hey Siri”) to quickly set the next reminder.

Using Voice Assistants

Whether you like them or not, ai assistants are here to stay, so we might as well take advantage of them.

The most common command I give my assistant Siri is to set an alarm so that I don’t miss my next meeting.

This is because I have all of my notifications turned off, but I still can’t miss meetings, so this is my shortcut.

You can also use it to dictate notes on your walk into your Notes app.

Get creative with the assistant and just try different commands. You’ll be surprised what they can do these days.

Do Difficult Tasks First

I still struggle with doing the challenging task first every day. I am a chronic procrastinator and I will often postpone the actual task that moves the needle as long as possible.

The trick is to just do the first step of that hard task. This gives you the momentum to keep going.

I usually aim to finish three tasks each day of the week. On the weekends, the three tasks are more personal and not work-related.

If I can just do three things a day, I feel like it is a successful day. You can start with just one big goal and make sure to knock it out early in the day (ideally before noon). 

The rest of the day will feel less stressful.

Batch Meetings When Possible

Meetings are my kryptonite when it comes to productivity. They will zap any momentum I have so I recommend strategically placing them in two ways:

1. Either batch all meetings into the same day or
2. If you must have meetings each day, set blocks of time specifically for meetings with no more than a 15-minute gap in between.

If you know when you have the most energy in the day, try to batch the meetings at the times when you have the lowest energy otherwise you waste all of your focus time on meetings which typically are counter-productive.

In a perfect world, you should almost never have meetings. The vast majority of decisions can be made asynchronously. 

Giving updates is the worst use of meeting time.

I have a client for whom we had a single meeting which was only to meet each other for the first time and to kick off the project. The rest of the time we’ve corresponded asynchronously in Slack.

Continuing Education

I reserve up to 10% of my income for continuing education. It is probably the most enjoyable and highest return on investment of my time and money throughout my working career.

Other benefits include:

• Helping you keep up to date in your field. Especially if you are in the tech sector.
• Certifications help you increase your earning potential by charging higher fees or being promoted in your 9-5.
• Improve your marketable skills. It can never hurt to learn more additional hard or soft skills.
• It’s just good fun. Learning is more enjoyable when you want to learn it and not because you have to (thinking back to my not-so-productive time in university).

Limit Your Screen Time

You might think you’re a robot and you probably were when you were in your 20s, but when you get decades older, your body really starts responding more negatively to stress.

I thought I could work literally 8 hours straight, but it turns out, when I was at my 9-5, inside the office, this wasn’t the case.

I had many coffee breaks, water cooler talk, you name it. All of these little breaks are now gone as a remote worker and if you don’t consciously limit your screen time you are going to really strain your eyes and body.

If you absolutely must stay on longer to meet a deadline, I recommend blue light glasses. Get the (ugly) orange or yellow ones because they will actually work. If you get the clear ones, you will hardly notice the difference.

Eat Breakfast

I’m not a breakfast person. For some reason, I still find it hard to incorporate food into my morning routine. Most mornings, I just drink a latte, but on the days I actually eat breakfast, I feel so much better.

Having food in the morning helps kickstart your body for the much-needed energy it needs throughout the day.

If you’re like me, just start off small. Anything is better than nothing. And then move toward more healthy snacks like yogurt.

The key is to start building small habits to benefit your mind and body in the long run.

Effective Communication is Key

With many of these remote working tips, the main throughline which really makes them work is communication.

If you’re setting boundaries on time and turning off notifications, for example, you need to let those that could be affected by your decisions know why it is important for you to work this way.

A lot of these tips are meant to reduce your stress and distractions during the workday, but it does require coordination sometimes with others to make the process successful.

Work in Different Remote Locations

It’s nice to get out of the house once or twice a week. Go to a coffee shop or the library if you need a bit of quiet time. If you want more regular interactions, try a co-working space.

When you stick to one location or environment, you tend to feel and think in specific ways. When you change things up, new creative ideas will flow.

If anything, it breaks up the daily mundane experience into something more enjoyable. And you might even build a new connection with a stranger.

Conclusion

One thing will become really clear when you start working long periods remotely, and that is that your time is incredibly valuable.

When implemented slowly over time, these remote working tips are sure to increase productivity, reduce stress and set up an environment for a comfortable remote work life.

Meetings notes are typically informal records of decisions, key ideas, and actions. You typically want to take meeting notes as they provide an official record for the attendees that may have missed the meeting and are an effective way to recall what happened during the meeting without having to review entire meeting recordings.

Not to be confused with meeting minutes which are more formal meetings for note-taking usually reserved for events like annual meetings with shareholders.

Why Are Meeting Notes Important

Writing meeting notes allows you to capture ideas and thought processes that would otherwise go unrecorded.

When decisions are made during meetings, you want these documented for a few reasons. This can be used as an official record during discussions of scope and deliverables.

In project retrospectives, you can refer back to the decision-making thought line and identify where “things went wrong” in the project if you have a record of it.

Typically after a meeting, you will be left with a list of your action items, but what about the actions of your colleagues? This is where the action items section of your meeting notes becomes helpful, especially if your action has a dependency on someone else.

Preparing for Meetings

Without preparing for meetings, you’ll likely waste time at the meeting. Here are some tips for taking effective meeting notes.

Know The Meeting Participants

The first step is to know who is going to attend the meeting. Knowing this information helps you determine how much preparation time you need.

If the CEO is attending your meeting or the problem is complex, you might want to spend extra time preparing.

Know The Objective

Before attending a meeting, it helps to know what type of meeting it will be. What decision needs to be made? Who else needs to be involved? Do you just want to listen? Or do you want to contribute ideas? Knowing your purpose ahead of time will help you focus on the best outcome.

Set The Meeting Agenda

When preparing for a meeting, set a clear meeting agenda. If you don’t have formal agenda items, write down key points or ideas you’d like to cover. This way, everyone knows where things stand before the meeting begins.

Using Templates

If you’re taking notes digitally, you can always select from a gallery of meeting note templates. Most modern apps will have an array of templates for you to choose from and using these can save you a lot of time, especially for repetitive tasks.

What to do During the Meeting

It’s team meeting time. Here’s how to make sure you take effective notes during the meeting. 

Laptop Versus Pen and Paper

A laptop can be distracting because it requires our attention. If you’re writing notes on the computer, you might be distracted by email notifications or social media posts. The upside is you will type faster than you can write.

Pen and paper are good alternatives to laptops. You don’t have to worry about losing your place in a document or having to switch apps. Plus, you can use pen and paper anywhere without dealing with chargers.

A study published in Science Daily also found that people taking handwritten notes had improved memory. 

Choose A Note-Taking Method That Works For You

Chances are by now you have a routine for how you take notes. I switch back and forth between handwriting and laptop depending on what I’m taking notes about. For actions, I like to write them down in a notebook because there is nothing more satisfying than crossing something off my list.

For everything else, I will write it in a digital organizer like Notion.

Decide on a routine that works for you and stick with it before trying to optimize anything.

Should You Record the Meeting?

You may want to record the meeting if you don’t miss anything important. Or maybe you just want more context to the conversation.

Whatever the reason, recording meetings helps you better understand what happened during the discussion in more detail. Make sure to ask permission before you start recording to give everyone a warning.

When meetings are technical in nature or are simply outside of your expertise, you may want to decide to record the meeting.

As a non-technical project manager myself, I found recording meetings allowed me to communicate better with my colleagues.

Don’t Write A Transcription Of The Meeting

You’ve probably been in meetings where someone takes detailed notes. And while it might seem helpful to review those notes later, there are some things that just aren’t worth writing down. Here are three ways to make sure you don’t forget anything important during a meeting.

Take Notes During the Meeting

The best way to ensure you’ll remember everything discussed during a meeting is to write it down in real time. Unless you have an iron-clad memory, trying to remember something from the beginning of a meeting immediately after will prove difficult.

Ask Clarifying Questions

Another great way to ensure you’ll never forget anything important is to ask questions throughout the meeting. As an active participant, this helps you recall what was covered and makes it easier to follow up on topics later.

Record Keywords or Phrases

If you really want to ensure you’ll remember every detail of the meeting, use keywords and phrases to mark sections of text. For example, if you wanted to record a section of a meeting about how to build a website, you’d type “website building.” Then, whenever you come across that phrase again, you’ll instantly recall why you wrote it down.

Create Sections for Notes, Decisions, and Actions

Outline three main sections for notes, decisions, and actions. Sometimes, I place “actions” at the top for quick recall.

Jot down the majority of your topics and shorthand notes in the “notes” section. Make sure to use bullets where they make sense and for quick formatting if you are typing in your notes.

Indent if there are subtopical notes that are related to the main topic being discussed. Try not to use acronyms when possible or at least expand on the acronym during the post-meeting clean-up phase.

As meetings transition from topic to topic, leave some room between your notes just as you would if you were writing an article. 

The “decisions” section helps your team move past a particular problem at that point in the project. You only want to add to this section if it’s a deliberate decision and not just a general topical conversation. As the note taker, you can confirm this with “to confirm, we are making the decision to do XYZ.” You will receive a yes or no with some additional commentary.

Even if the decision is clearly a “no,” you’ll want to add this to the decision section. It’s just as important to document what is moving forward as what is not in a decision.

As for the “actions” section, ensure you are taking actions during the meeting and not at the end. Often by the end, you will have forgotten what happened earlier in the meeting.

Repeat the Actions

The most important aspect of a meeting is making sure the room understands what needs to happen next.

Before the meeting ends, repeat the actions that are in the actions section. Confirm with everyone that they are indeed actions, if not, this is the time to cross them out.

If time permits, you’ll want to also assign the actions to someone. You have to do this later anyway, so it’s ideal to take this time while you’re all together already (the cost of the meeting is already sunk) and assign those tasks.

You may find that the action gets passed around because someone assumed it was someone else’s responsibility. This is why it is helpful to assign them during the meeting so that it gets assigned correctly.

What To Do After The Meeting

At this point, only the actions may have been assigned. You now want to review the meeting notes after the meetings.

This includes cleaning up your notes, shorthand, and rewriting the notes so they are presentable to an audience. Ask yourself “if I come back tomorrow, will these notes make sense to another person in the meeting?” If the answer is no, continue to clarify the notes.

This is also a good time to move your notes to a digital note-taking app so that it gets archived and is accessible to all meeting attendees.

Share The Meeting Notes

As the meeting organizer, it’s now time to share the meeting recap with all the attendees and file them in a shared place where they can be publically accessed. You may also want to copy in other stakeholders that weren’t present at the meeting, so they can view the key takeaways and action items.

Follow up with a quick recap of the actions either through email or your team’s regular instant communication channel like Slack and link the rest of the notes. You don’t want to paste all of the notes into the communication channel as this could get overwhelming.  Not everyone needs the notes, but everyone needs the execute the actions. 

Be mindful of the content in the notes as well. Many note and communication apps allow for private and public publishing of information. If the meeting was about sensitive topics related to HR, you want to be extra careful about who has access to them and who shouldn’t.

Make Notes Searchable

Apps like Notion have incredible search capabilities. You can search and filter by parameters like Date, Assignee, Title, and so on.

In order to take advantage of these features, you want to add keywords to the titles of your notes if you took or move them to the digital space.

If you use acronyms, make sure to also spell out the entire word so as to capture both search queries in the future.

Instead of naming it Meeting Notes [Date], name it Meeting Notes about Website Concept.

This gives it a bit more context as to what the meeting was about without even having to read it, but more importantly, it will show up in search in tools and apps.

Wrapping It Up

We all want to run productive meetings.

To recap, you’ll want to make sure you take the proper pre-planning tips so you start the meeting off with an agenda.

Then you’ll want to ensure you record the decisions, actions, and key topics of the meeting.

Finally, clean up the notes and share them with all the attendees and make them accessible to everyone in a shared space.

I hope that this article has provided a quick reference for managing your notes for your next important meeting.

In this article, I go over the absolute best plugins for any small business regardless of the service or product that you sell.

All of these recommendations are core to keeping your website in good standing, protecting you from malware attacks, and keeping your workflow going as efficiently as possible.

Best Backup Plugin – All-in-One WP Migration

While your hosting service may back up your sites automatically, it’s always a good idea to also have a backup of your own.

This is because when your site goes down for whatever reason, you don’t want to have to rely on customer service to restore your backup only to find out it wasn’t the one you wanted.

You can set your worries aside with the free version of All-in-One WP Migration plugin by ServMask.

After installing the plugin, simply navigate to the All-in-One WP Migration on the left sidebar and select Export. From there you will get a drop-down of options.

My preference is to use the Export to File option. Then you can download the compressed files and store them anywhere you want.

To restore your site, you simply use the Import function, find the file you backed up in the past, and your backup is running within minutes.

If your budget allows, you can automate the entire process by purchasing a cloud-specific add on which auto-schedules the backup directly to the cloud provider of your choice.

Best Image Compressor – ShortPixel

Dealing with images is a drag. Typically you’d need to manually resize the image, then upload it to a site like Tinypng to compress it further. Finally, you have to upload it to WordPress to eventually add to your blog.

Multiply that by every single image, and you’ve just 10x-ed your workload. Nobody has time for that.

With the ShortPixel plugin simply select your compression level and you’re all set.

This plugin used to be free, but they have recently started charging for their service. In the past, they were crunching millions of images a day for free which increased operational costs.

Fortunately, ShortPixel has incredibly generous plans. I recommend going with the Credits Package option instead of the monthly plans. At a $9.99 one-time charge for 10,000 images, it’s going to take you a while to get through that many images.

Of course, if you are running multiple websites with clients or an image-heavy photography website you may want to consider the monthly option.

Best Page Builder For Speed – Kadence WP + Starter Templates

Previous to Kadence, I only ever built websites with Elementor. Then I tried Kadence and I was blown away by the out of the box speed of the websites it created.

For basic blogs, you can expect to see site speeds like the report below. This is the lighthouse speed test on the blog you’re reading right now without any additional configuration to the code!

Kadence uses the native WordPress Gutenberg editor so if you are a writer that prefers to write in the editor, you’ll feel right at home with this builder.

If you’ve never used page builders before, there are a number of tutorials on Kadence on YouTube. The learning curve with Kadence is days and not weeks.

Be sure to install both the Gutenberg Blocks and the Starter Templates plugins to help kick-start your website.

Best Page Builder Functionality – Elementor

Having used Elementor for over five years now, it is still one of my favorite page builders. If you’re a creator who prefers to have precise controls in a simple UI that can scale with your projects, this is your builder.

Elementor allows you to drag and drop widgets into the canvas space. There are any number of column options for you to choose from and the free version of the plugin packs plenty of functionality with over 30 widgets before you have to go Pro.

You can, however, expect to take a week or two before you really start feeling comfortable with the builder. With so many features, you’ll be able to take on any client with your portfolio of sites.

Best Security Plugin – Wordfence

If you don’t believe in security, you likely haven’t been infected with malware on your website before.

Running without a security plugin is like leaving your front door unlocked. Yes, it may seem like you can’t get into the house, but that’s just because the attackers haven’t tried yet.

This is where Wordfence comes in. The free plugin is all you need to get started unless you have very sensitive data that requires real-time firewall rules to be pushed to your website.

I would recommend going premium at that point, but for most of us, the free version will do just fine.

This plugin can be a bit difficult to setup compared to other plugins unless you’re already a security expert so I do recommend going through the tutorial here.

Best Code Snippet Manager – WP Code

If you’re a non-coder like myself, it’s more convenient to rely on tools to help add snippets for 3rd party code. WP code helps manage all of your snippets in one plugin.

Previously called Insert Headers and Footer, fortunately, this plugin also added more functionality with its updated name.

You can now manage snippets and insert them in a variety of methods.

In addition, there is an option to quickly disable or enable snippets with a toggle.

For a more in-depth how-to article for installing and configuring this plugin, you can read this post here.

Final Thoughts

Whether you’re just getting started or an expert web developer, I would still recommend these plugins. You can be sure that they work together like a team and will scale with your projects while keeping your workflow at its peak level.

Headers

Headers are sometimes called H tags. They tell the search engines how your article is formatted. However, in Notion this block type simply helps me organize ideas into headers similar to google docs. If you copy the Headers into another tool the headers will come with it which could save time if you work between tools and post articles often.

The shortcut for headers is using the pound (#) sign.

• One # sign gives you Header 1
• Two # signs give you Header 2
• Three # signs give you Header 3

Give it a quick try in notion now!

Using bullets

For simple readability, I use a lot of bullets. This forces my eyes and sets up the context for grouping of information. To do this in Notion, we use the Bullet block feature or the asterisks as a keyboard shortcut.

As your ideas come to life on the page, you’ll want to nest bullets within each other to group similar topics together. You can do this simply by pressing Tab as you type within Notion.

Checkboxes for actions

Another useful shortcut is the checkbox block type. The shortcut for this is two square brackets next to each either without a space like this, []. After you press the space bar after the right bracket, Notion will automatically turn it into a checkbox.

One useful way to use checkboxes are to capture actions after your meetings. Because they have a distinctive look in the tool, they stand out already on their own when skimming notes.

Toggle to Hide Distractions

The toggle block type provides a toggle where you can nest any other block type within it. This is useful if you have rough or references notes that you want to hide away so they don’t distract during the writing process.

You can also use the > shortcut to quickly create a toggle block type.

Put It All Together

Time to get some practice in! You can sign up to Notion for free today. Try to use Bullets, Toggles, Headers and Checkboxes to give your notes some extra personality and ultimately make it easier to read. Happy notioning!