How Dropbox Paper helps make meetings more efficient and effective

Published on November 08, 2016

Did you know knowledge workers spend over 60% of their time in meetings, according to a 2013 study? Face-to-face meetings are a perfect time for teams to bring up ideas, build consensus, and make decisions that move projects forward. But keeping everyone on the same page can be difficult. So we created Dropbox Paper, a simple, powerful way for teams to work together. With Paper, your team has one central place to create and find the info they need, including meeting notes. Here are three simple ways you can use Paper to run a tight, efficient—and valuable—meeting.

Set up your meeting for success

Getting prepared before the meeting is the best way to ensure a productive discussion. And Paper is a simple way to make sure everyone is on the same page even before they're in the same room. Start by creating a meeting doc with key details at the top: agenda, meeting date, attendee names. Tip: Type in "/date" or "/datetime" (followed by a space). Paper automatically fills in the current date and time.

If you have existing Paper docs with relevant background info, just add links and get your team up to speed quickly. Share the doc in advance of your meeting to provide context for the discussion. If you use Google Calendar for work, you can integrate it with Paper to save yourself some typing. One click creates a template that's auto-populated with your subject, date, attendees, and your agenda.

Make meeting notes memorable

Want to highlight a key point or make a note more noticeable? Try linking in a few related Dropbox files and images to add more context or provide proof points and examples. If you're tired of typing out everything manually, or tired of taking a picture and losing it an long email thread, Paper can help. Our Paper mobile app for iOS and Android makes it easy to snap a quick picture of whiteboards and stickies. Just click the camera icon that appears in your doc on the app, and Paper will automatically place your photo in your meeting notes.

Screenshot of a notebook sketch embedded in a Dropbox Paper doc

Close the meeting with clear outcomes

Noting decisions and tasks in your meeting notes is a great way to make sure the entire team is aligned before they head off to tackle their tasks. Paper's task list feature makes this easy and helps you keep track of key action items. To quickly create checkboxes, type brackets ("[ ]") followed by a space.

Screenshot showing tasks in Dropbox Paper

With Paper, you can assign tasks simply by mentioning someone with the @ sign to assign tasks, and even get notifications when the task is complete. With the sharing feature, you can share the doc with all stakeholders—including those who couldn't attend. That way, the entire team moves forward knowing what was discussed, what was decided, and who owns the action items. Efficient meetings can make a measurable difference in your team's productivity. By bringing together content and collaborators in one place, Paper can help you simplify what happens before, during, and after, so you can keep projects moving forward. Try Paper for your next team meeting.

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neil-sethi

Neil Sethi