Show HN: I built a system for active note-taking in regular meetings like 1-1s

Hey HN! Like most here regular meetings have always been a big part of my work.

Over the years I've learned the value of active note taking in these meetings. Meaning: not minutes, not transcriptions or AI summaries, but me using my brain to actively pull out the key points in short form bullet-like notes, as the meeting is going on, as I'm talking and listening (and probably typing with one hand). This could be agenda points to cover, any interesting sidebars raised, insights gotten to in a discussion, actions agreed to (and a way to track whether they got done next time!).

It's both useful just to track what's going on in all these different meetings week to week (at one point I was doing about a dozen 1-1s per week, and it just becomes impossible to hold it in RAM) but also really valuable over time when you can look back and see the full history of a particular meeting, what was discussed when, how themes and structure are changing, is the meetings effective, etc.

Anyway, I've tried a bunch of different tools for taking these notes over the years. All the obvious ones you've probably used too. And I've always just been not quite satisfied with the experience. They work, obviously (it's just text based notes at the end of the day) but nothing is first-class for this usecase.

So, I decided to build the tool I've always felt I want to use, specifically for regular 1-1s and other types of regular meetings. I've been using it myself and with friends for a while already now, and I think it's got to that point where I actually prefer to reach for it over other general purpose note taking tools now, and I want to share it more widely.

There's a free tier so you can use it right away, in fact without even signing up.

If you've also been wanting a better system to manage your notes for regular meetings, give it a go and let me know what you think!

I LOVE this, exactly what I’ve been looking for.

Here’s the issue - all my meetings have confidential, sensitive info. I can’t use a version you host (or well, I could, but you won’t be willing to do the 6 month security review I need).

Can you give me a version I can host (or run locally) and I give you some $ one time or per year?

yes, absolutely. I've been thinking about this too, I did plan to offer self hosted if there's demand and have built it with that in mind.

My email is davnicwil at gmail, please email me and let's talk about it!

Love it, great idea. My humble advice: you’re on the top of HN right now—make it completely free. Overnight you could get some serious adoption (strike while the iron is hot!) Then build a few more features that people won’t be able to live without and THAT can be your paid tier.

Good shout.

I'm going to give everyone who signs up today full access to everything and access to those features will be grandfathered in to any future plans.

The plans as you see them now are just rough shape anyway just to launch something!

Thanks for sharing it! What are the advantages of using the tool instead opening a simple google docs?

Thanks for sharing! I like the clean interface. Does Docket have a feature to export all your notes into some file with one go? Assuming I would use the system for a couple of years, I'd prefer to have a (local) backup of all the notes I've written.

Thanks for taking a look!

Absolutely, yes, full export of notes (in variety of formats) is coming soon :-)

Thanks for sharing your work. I'm not sure I have a particular use for it at the moment, but it's well executed.

One point of (hopefully) constructive feedback is that it wasn't obvious from my first interaction with the temporary doc that I was able to create checklists and bullet points. Once I saw that those are possible, I quickly guessed the keystrokes, but it might be helpful to add some graphical guidance.

thanks! It's something I've batted around with a few friends who've tried it. I agree it's not totally clear.

On desktop, you get a little popover menu with all available formatting when you highlight some text. On mobile, it's always there when you select.

I was thinking along the lines of something like a little help icon (?) that might toggle it on desktop, some sort of overlay that only appears on first use, or just a real simple tutorial video or something. I'll think on it. Thanks for the feedback!

I've been using a Mead pen-based tablet with paper-like display for that. It has some disadvantages but it's been rock solid, no firmware patches or security exploits so far, and maintains state ridiculously long without needing battery recharges.

Why does it need to be on the web? Maybe I've missed something, can I run this locally?

It's a web app for now, just to start somewhere. If there's demand in future, I'll make native apps too :-)

Already exists better to free and see the other one https://www.notetimeapp.com/diaries

It's looking nice! Is it open-source?

Thank you! No, not open source, at least as of now.

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