Meetings & notes
The value of a meeting is almost entirely in what survives it. Most summaries fail because they flatten an hour of conversation into a neutral paragraph, losing the one decision that was actually made and the three that only sounded like decisions. The prompts below separate those. They insist on a named owner and a date for every action, they mark unclear ownership rather than inventing it, and several are written to find what a normal summary hides: the question nobody answered, the person who never got the floor, the agreement that was really just silence. Use them on a transcript, a page of notes, or a meeting you have not yet scheduled.
36 prompts in 5 groups
Meetings & notes21 categories
Before and during
Agendas, pre-reads, prep for a 1:1 or an exec slot, and plans for retros and workshops.
- Design an agenda that earns the hourLongBefore sending a calendar invite that would otherwise just have a title.
- Write a pre-read people will actually readLongWhen the meeting only works if everyone arrives with the same context.
- Prepare for a one-to-oneLongFifteen minutes before a 1:1 you would otherwise improvise.
- Plan and facilitate a retrospectiveLongRunning a retro that should produce change rather than a list of grumbles.
- Prepare to present to executivesLongYou have ten minutes with senior people and a deck built for forty.
- Structure a brainstorm that produces somethingLongBefore a session where the loudest person would otherwise set the direction.
- Plan a half-day workshopLongFacilitating a longer session and needing a minute-by-minute plan.
- Write the agendaShortBefore sending an invite that would otherwise just have a title.
- What should I ask in this meeting?ShortWalking into a meeting where you have a seat and no clear purpose.
- Three things for this one-to-oneMediumTen minutes before a 1:1 you would otherwise improvise.
- Ten minutes with executivesMediumA senior audience, little context, and a deck built for forty minutes.
Decisions and actions
Pulling what was settled and who owes what out of a set of notes, and catching what was not.
- Turn messy notes into decisions and actionsLongThe default pass on any notes you took while half-listening.
- Turn this meeting into a decision recordLongAfter a meeting where something important was settled and will be questioned later.
- Spot decisions that were never actually madeLongWhen a meeting felt productive but you cannot say what was settled.
- Capture the open questionsLongAt the end of a discussion, to make sure nothing unresolved gets lost.
- Actions onlyShortThe fastest useful pass on any set of meeting notes.
- Decisions onlyShortWhen you need to know what was settled, not what was discussed.
- What was not decided?ShortAfter a meeting that felt productive but settled less than it seemed.
- Who owns what?ShortChecking that every action has exactly one name against it.
- Notes into four sectionsMediumThe default pass on notes you took while half-listening.
Summaries and transcripts
Long recordings and calls compressed down, including what a flat summary would hide.
- Summarise a long transcript without losing the pointLongA 90-minute recording you need to digest in five.
- Extract only what is relevant to meLongA long meeting or thread where three minutes concerned you.
- Find who was not heard in this meetingLongReviewing a transcript of a meeting you ran, to check the room actually worked.
- Summarise this in three linesShortA long call you need to hand to someone in one message.
- Where did people disagree?MediumA transcript that a normal summary would flatten into false consensus.
Updates and follow-ups
The message after the meeting: status for a manager, a team update, and chasing what stalled.
- Chase actions nobody clearly ownsLongA week after a meeting, when half the actions have quietly not happened.
- Summarise a week of standupsLongTurning daily noise into something a stakeholder can read on Friday.
- Compress an update into a chat messageLongWhen the status belongs in Slack, not in a document nobody opens.
- Write a weekly update for my managerLongFriday afternoon, summarising a week you can barely remember.
- Turn this into a team updateShortNotes that need to become a message people will actually read.
- One-line statusShortA stakeholder asks how it is going and wants the honest one-liner.
- Write the follow-up messageMediumThe message you send an hour after the meeting to make it stick.
Fewer meetings
Declining, shrinking or replacing a meeting that does not earn the hour.
- Decline or shrink a meeting politelyLongAn invite arrives that should be 15 minutes, three people, or an email.
- Replace this meeting with something asyncLongA recurring meeting that has become a status ritual nobody defends.
- Does this meeting need to happen?ShortAn invite that arrives with a title and no stated outcome.
- Could this meeting be async?MediumA recurring meeting that has become a status ritual nobody defends.
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