Meeting Notes Template
A structure that produces decisions and owners instead of a transcript nobody reads.
Most meeting notes record what was said. Useful ones record what was decided, who owns it, and what's still open.
The difference is that the second kind gets read again.
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The template
═══════════════════════════════════════════
[Meeting name] — [date]
═══════════════════════════════════════════
Present:
Absent:
Purpose: [one sentence — why this meeting happened]
───────────────────────────────────────────
DECISIONS
───────────────────────────────────────────
[What was decided. Not discussed — decided.]
1. [Decision]
Decided by: [who]
Takes effect: [when]
2. ...
[If this section is empty, the meeting was a discussion.
That's allowed — write "No decisions" and say what's needed
to reach one.]
───────────────────────────────────────────
ACTIONS
───────────────────────────────────────────
| What | Who | By when |
|---|---|---|
| | | |
[Every action has exactly one name. "The team" is not an owner.
Every action has a date. "Soon" is not a date.]
───────────────────────────────────────────
OPEN QUESTIONS
───────────────────────────────────────────
- [Question] — needs: [what, from whom, by when]
───────────────────────────────────────────
NOT DOING
───────────────────────────────────────────
- [Thing raised and deliberately rejected] — because [reason]
[The most undervalued section. It stops the same idea
being re-proposed in six weeks.]
───────────────────────────────────────────
CONTEXT (optional)
───────────────────────────────────────────
[Only what's needed to understand the decisions above.
Not a transcript.]
───────────────────────────────────────────
Next meeting: [date, or "none scheduled"]
Notes by:
How to use it
Fill it during the meeting, not after. Notes written afterwards are a reconstruction, and reconstructions are tidier and less accurate.
Read the decisions and actions aloud before closing. Thirty seconds. It catches the misunderstandings that otherwise surface a week later.
Send it within the day. A note that arrives three days later has already been overtaken.
Rules that make the difference
One owner per action. Shared ownership means nobody starts.
A date, always. An action without a date is a wish. If the date is genuinely unknown, the action is "find out by when" with a date on that.
Separate decided from discussed. The most common failure in meeting notes is recording a strong opinion as an outcome. If nobody said yes, it isn't a decision.
Record what you rejected. The "not doing" section saves more time than any other part of the template, because it prevents the same proposal returning as new.
For recurring meetings
Add one line at the top:
Last meeting's actions:
[ ] [action] — [who] — done / not done / moved to [date]
Starting with this takes two minutes and is the single thing that makes a recurring meeting produce results rather than a rolling list.
When not to have the meeting
If you can't write the purpose line in one sentence, the meeting isn't ready.
If the purpose is "update each other," it's a document.
If the only decision-maker can't attend, reschedule — everything else is rehearsal.
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