Revolutionizing Business Meetings with Notion

In 2014, I started teaching digital productivity, focusing primarily on the effective uses of the Microsoft Office Suite. I had the opportunity to share my knowledge with various teams across New Zealand, significantly changing how they worked, which was incredibly rewarding and something I still strive to do.

Today, I want to show you how to save time not only for yourself but for your entire business.I'll outline the key features needed for effective meeting planning and explain how you can implement my unique Smart Meeting Solution within your team. An intuitive Notion workspace developed through years of experience building for clients of all shapes and sizes as a Certified Notion Consultant.

Whether you're a Notion beginner, workplace champion, or a Notion Consultant, this approach will help you create a powerful, user-friendly meeting system. I've created both free and paid versions of this system available to help protect your valuable time.After all, time is money, and we all deserve to be wealthy.

Preparing Your Agenda

In a well-organized and efficient work environment, recurring meetings often have a set agenda for effective preparation. This agenda usually includes an "Any Other Business (AOB)" section, allowing participants to discuss additional matters, ask questions, or share information not covered in the scheduled items. This flexibility ensures important issues are addressed, even if they're unplanned.

A crucial part of preparing for these meetings is the ability to easily note down discussion topics in a centralized collaboration space well in advance.

This practice can reduce stress, friction, and enhance clarity. Meeting agendas, especially the AOB section, serve as an important space for noting new ideas. Rather than wasting energy trying to develop an idea through online communications, note it in the meeting agenda for a more productive, face-to-face discussion.

The Smart Meeting Solution comes with seven key meeting-type templates (and unlimited customization) for you to structure your team meetings effectively. All of these templates provide space for you to quickly jot down your agenda points throughout the ideation process.

Need more assistance with your agenda preparation? Easily ask Notion AI to create a custom agenda directly within the solution.

Reviewing the Previous Meeting

Effective meetings include a ‘Review of Previous Minutes’ and/or ‘Review of Action Items’ at the start. During this stage, the facilitator or participants may go through the minutes of the last meeting to ensure all action items were addressed, provide updates on progress, and discuss any outstanding tasks or unresolved issues. This component is necessary to keep the team accountable and ensure everyone is informed about the status of tasks assigned in previous meetings.

This is where The Smart Meeting Solution truly shines.

Instead of opening new windows and navigating between different pages, you can easily search for your old meeting and glide between the previous and current meeting.

Reviewing your previous meeting has never been easier and more streamlined.

Effective Task Assignment within each meeting

As the meeting progresses, actions need to be assigned to people across the business. The biggest issue in old meeting processes is action accountability. When we simply note an action, we rely on the memory of the action owner, rather than a proven system. The master ‘ACTIONS’ database within The Smart Meetings Solution provides a holistic view of all actions across the business and is also simultaneously filtered into the action owner’s personalized dashboard.

When an action is assigned, attendees don’t have to scribble into their own personal note-taking systems. They can leave the meeting knowing this action will now be added to their own ‘task list’ which they can address and update throughout the week. This allows for easy task prioritization and tracking, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks post-meeting.

Best of all, you don’t have to leave the page or app to do this, it’s all included in the template!

The paid version of The Smart Meetings Solutionin cludes the ACTIONS database and access to personalized dashboards available via the PEOPLE database.

Finalizing the Meeting

After the meeting is adjourned, it's essential to update key properties such as ‘Call Recording’ and ‘Absent/Attended’. This ensures those who couldn’t join know where and how to review the meeting.

For absentees, this meeting will instantly appear in their personalized dashboard as a reminder to review the call recording and any missed notes. No more emailing out the meeting minutes to absentees.

The best part? You now have a centralized database for every meeting record throughout the business in one easy-to-find location.

Free Access for Notion Consultants

As a Notion Consultant, you know the value of having a robust portfolio of effective base templates at your disposal. If not, I invite you to delve into the Notion Consultants Course where I unravel the significance of this game-changing technique for all new and seasoned Notion Consultants.

I have crafted a free, 'plug-and-play' version of this solution specifically for you available here. This solution is stripped down to its bare essentials, detaching all external database relations, and offering you the pure essence of The Smart Meetings Solution. It comes complete with two databases including an integrated agenda and notes system, ready to be connected to your personalized tasks and people database.

The Smart Meeting Solution for Notion transcends the traditional way of managing meetings by integrating modern technology with best practices. It's not just about making meetings more efficient; it's about fostering a culture of accountability, ensuring clear communication, and valuing everyone's time. It's a step towards creating a more organized and productive workspace. Whether you're a Notion Consultant or a business leader, embracing this change signifies your commitment to innovation and continuous improvement.