The note-taking tool I use in every meeting

Think about what you do in most meetings. You listen, but you also scribble notes. You try to catch every action item. You half-follow the conversation while typing what was just said. So you're never fully in the room.

And your notes are still a mess afterward. You spend time after the call writing up what happened, chasing what you missed, and working out who agreed to what. The meeting ends, but the work of the meeting doesn't.

What I use instead

I stopped taking notes in my own meetings. I use Fathom now. It's an AI notetaker that joins your calls, records them, transcribes them, and writes the summary for you.

You just show up and talk. It runs on Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams, so it follows me everywhere I meet. When the call ends, the notes are already done.

I'm not a light user

I'm in Fathom at least three hours a day. Coaching calls, sales calls, internal meetings. All of them run through it.

I'm not saying that to impress you. I'm saying it so you know this isn't a tool I tried once. It's the backbone of how I run my day.

Three things it does for me

First, it lets me stay present. This is the big one. I look my client in the eye instead of down at my keyboard. I listen fully. The conversation gets better when you're actually in it.

Second, it does the writing for me. After every call I get a clean summary, the key action items, and a full searchable transcript. I didn't type a word of it.

Third, I can share it. I send clients a recap right after our call. They get the summary and the action items without waiting. It makes me look organized, because now I am.

The part I didn't expect

Every meeting becomes searchable. Months later, I can find what a client said back in week two. I don't lean on my memory or dig through scattered notes.

It's all there, and I can search it in seconds. For someone who runs a lot of long relationships, that record is worth more than I thought it would be.

One thing I always do

I let people know the call is being recorded. It's the right thing to do, and most teams expect it now. Fathom makes that easy, and being upfront about it has never once been a problem for me.

Who I'd recommend it to

If your calendar is wall-to-wall meetings, this is built for your day. Coaching, sales, one-on-ones, team syncs. Anywhere you need to be present and still capture what matters.

So I'll say it plainly. I recommend Fathom for tech leaders who are tired of splitting their attention between the conversation and the keyboard. It's the tool I use every working day, and it's saved me countless hours.

I recommend it to my colleagues, friends, and coaching clients too. Most of them never go back.

Try it yourself

Fathom is free to start. No credit card, and the free plan is genuinely useful, not a crippled demo. Try it on your next call. Show up, talk, and let it handle the notes. Then see how the rest of your day feels.