Dear Colleague, Put the laptop/smartphone down. I'd rather you paid attention to the meeting instead of checking email/evernote/facebook. Even if you had the

Dear Colleague, Put the laptop/smartphone down. I'd rather you paid attention to the meeting instead of checking email/evernote/facebook. Even if you had the best intentions of taking notes for this meeting, I know how insidious notifications and instant updates can be. If you need to record a few items from this meeting you could jot a few notes down on a paper notebook. If I need to communicate something that is not easy to write down, like a long URL, I will make sure to email it to the meeting invite list, or even add it to the meeting description in our calendar. And don't worry. I am not so self-important to assume that every nugget of information that I relate in this meeting needs to be captured immediately in some electronic vault of knowledge.