Using Collaborative Notes and Lists for Seamless Teamwork

We’ve all been there. That seemingly endless and unproductive meeting or project briefing, the kind of meeting that makes you ask whether life is worth living! You take notes, you read them back, they make no sense. You ask your closest colleague to decipher, but all they’ve managed to get down is a crude drawing of a snake, or a doggo, or an unflattering picture of the boss in a compromising position.

But maybe there’s a better way… maybe if everyone pitched in to build a set of collaborative meeting notes, teams could actually benefit from those seemingly useless meetings. Not only would it reduce the burden of noting down everything you hear (whether important or not) but you’d also get a range of different perspectives, approaches, ideas, and creative solutions—all in a single document that can be edited by everyone.

Well, when it comes to working together and building creative teams, collaborative notes and lists are exactly what you’re looking for, allowing you to perform a range of different tasks that go way beyond simple meeting minutes. Read on to learn about how keeping your notes in the cloud can benefit your entire team.

Collaborative Notes for Meetings

Imagine this. You schedule a meeting or project briefing. You upload your agenda to a shared document and ask everyone to look it over before the meeting begins. Once the meeting is done, you ask everyone to comment on specific items, add fresh ideas, and answer any questions. For the next meeting, everyone highlights completed tasks and adds new questions, problems, or issues.

Sounds wonderful…right? Well, this is the kind of seamless interaction you can expect when using collaborative meeting notes. In fact, keeping a collaborative document handy with universal access ensures everyone is on the same page, both at the beginning and at every stage of the project thereafter. It also gives your team the chance to engage with projects and tasks, killing off those useless meetings once and for all by spreading information both before and after your meetings.

Collaborative Sticky Notes for Reminders

You know that feeling when you finally leave the office after a long day, and as soon as you step out of the door you just know you’ve forgotten something? Was it your wallet? Umbrella? Emailing the boss for the fifth time to ask for more information about an upcoming project? Well, the wonderful thing about collaborative sticky notes is that they can be used as reminders of all the things you need to do, but also, to remind everyone else of the things you need them to do too!

Rather than sending multiple emails bumping up specific requests or tasks, you can use collaborative sticky notes to remind colleagues to reply, complete, notify, or simply get in touch. They’re also super useful as a team resource, ensuring important appointments such as client calls and department meetings are never missed if someone is out sick or has simply forgotten.

Collaborative To-Do Lists

Got a bunch of tasks that need to be delegated? Well, just outsource them to your team using a collaborative to-do list. Whether it’s tied to your meeting notes or used as a standalone week-to-week task list, keeping this type of resource in the cloud ensures everyone is on board with what needs to be done and what has already been completed. All it takes is for you and your team to regularly update the collaborative list with the status of specific tasks.

Perhaps you have a range of different tasks that require the input of various departments, all of which must be completed so you can move forward with the next stage of your project. Collaborative to-do lists make the process simple. You can invite everyone involved to your collaborative document and split each task into the relevant department category—giving you a central overview of tasks completed, and each individual a clear view of how the project is developing.

Collaborative Time Sheets

If you’re managing a bunch of freelancers and remote workers, then collaborative spreadsheets will help everyone to log their hours and stick to time budgets. It also ensures freelancers can more efficiently bill for hours with complete transparency—helping you to manage your project budgets and deliver everything on time.

Collaborative spreadsheets can also be useful when logging overtime as a team, or for use later down the line when estimating project timelines and costs. Put simply, when you switch to a collaborative spreadsheet for hours worked, there’s less admin for team leaders and more freedom for freelancers, remote workers, and employees.

We’re big on collaboration. That’s why Spike is designed to make it as simple and efficient as possible for your entire team to work together. Spike’s mission has always been to make work easy and less of a chore, and there are some big things on the horizon. Check out the Spike blog for more information on our latest exciting developments.