Capture next steps and personal details, condense them soon after, delete the rest, then act on the next steps and file the keepers.
The idea
Information is the marrow of a meeting. Whether you capture it and act on it is the difference between being Bill Murray in Groundhog Day and being the groundhog. My system is three steps: capture, summarize, act. There's also a step zero: before you meet, write down a few things you want to learn, so you recognize fertile ground when the conversation hits it. These days an AI recorder handles most of the capturing, and I add the emotional notes it can't take.
How to do it
Capture, as soon as possible, and flag two things above all: next steps (the oxygen that keeps a relationship breathing) and personal details (golden). Note their goals and problems too.
Summarize soon after, because... I forget. Keep what's personally relevant and comfortable to bring up again, what reflects the state of their business, and anything that could connect them to someone you know. Then run the One-Year Test: what do you want to remember about this person next year? Write down one thing, maybe two, and stop.
Delete the rest. Information you'll never use is mental plaque.
Act, starting with next steps. Send a short note saying you enjoyed it, acknowledge what you committed to, and mention a personal detail for bonus points. Get anything time-sensitive on your to-do list.
Put the keepers in your CRM and read them before the next meeting.
Example
Say a lunch leaves you with a page of scribbles: she's hiring, she's training for a half marathon, and you offered an intro. All three pass the summary: hiring reflects the state of her business, the half marathon is a personal detail, and the intro is a next step. Act on the intro first, with a short note saying you enjoyed lunch.
Relatable: Recorder summaries can land on the right person in Relatable, and its weekly review routine is a good slot for working through what's open. A notebook and a recurring calendar slot do the same. How-to: Bring meeting notes in with a meeting recorder, The weekly review.
Related frameworks
Notes the Recorder Can't Take: Let AI keep the transcript, then spend two minutes on four questions: how you feel, when their energy shifted, your energy, what to remember.
The One-Year Test: Before writing a note about someone, ask what you'll want to remember about them next year. Write one thing, maybe two, then stop.
The Post-Meeting Protocol: Right after a meeting, send a follow-up listing what you committed to, then block weekly time to process notes and act on tasks.