Meeting notes that people actually read afterwards

The test of meeting notes is simple: could someone who missed the meeting read them in two minutes and know what happened and what they need to do? Most notes fail this because they try to record everything.

Capture three things, not everything

• Decisions. What was agreed. One line each. If a decision was reopened twice, note the final version only.
• Actions. Who is doing what, by when. A name and a date, always. “The team will look into it” is not an action.
• Open questions. What’s still unresolved and who owns getting an answer.

Discussion — the back and forth, the options considered — mostly doesn’t need recording. If it does, one sentence: “considered X and Y, went with X because of cost.”

Write it during, not after

Notes written from memory an hour later are longer, vaguer, and miss things. Keep a shared doc open during the meeting and type decisions and actions as they happen. It also keeps the meeting honest — people see what’s being committed to.

Send it within the hour

The value of meeting notes decays fast. Sent same-day while it’s fresh, people read them and act. Sent two days later, they’re an archive.

A format that works

Decisions
- ...

Actions
- [Name] — [what] — by [date]

Open questions
- [question] — owner: [name]

Three headings. If the notes are longer than the agenda, they’re too long.