Convert meeting notes into minutes and an action plan

First, Determine What Text You Have

Handwritten notes, transcribed audio, and group discussions do not have the same quality. Before handing the text over to the tool, specify people's names, the meeting title, and the date. If you are using a recording or an external service, coordinate it with the participants and leave out parts that are not needed for the meeting minutes.

The goal of meeting minutes is not to transcribe everything said. The reader should understand what decision was made, whose responsibility a task is, and what issue is still open.

Separate the Four Categories

Discussion: The topic that has been talked about.

Decision: What has actually been agreed upon.

Action: A specific task with a deliverable outcome.

Open Question: A topic that has no final answer or agreement.

"Maybe we'll try the new version next week" is not a definitive decision or a deadline. Ask the tool to move such items to open questions and not fill in the blank with guesses.

Ready-Made Prompt

Create meeting minutes from the note below. Use only the information present in the text. The output should include a three-line summary, definitive decisions, an action table, and open questions. Table columns: Task, Assignee, Deadline, and Short Proof from the note. If the assignee or deadline is not specified, write "Not determined". Do not turn suggestions into decisions. Do not change names.

A Small Example

Note: "Maryam said the initial page design will be ready by Tuesday. Reza suggested adding a survey as well; we didn't decide on it. It was decided that after seeing the design, we would determine the release date."

Acceptable meeting minutes should have one action for Maryam with a Tuesday deadline. The survey and release date should remain in the open topics section. If the meeting text does not have a date, do not arbitrarily turn "Tuesday" into a specific date.

Use measurable phrases for actions: "Submitting the initial page design" is clearer than "Following up on design". But the level of detail should not exceed what was said in the meeting.

Review and Send

First, check names, numbers, and times. Then verify that no action without an assignee has been registered under an individual's name. Finally, ask one of the attendees to confirm the decisions and use the reviewed version as the basis for follow-up.

For the next meeting, reuse the action table and add the status and blocker columns. The tool can categorize lagging tasks, but changing deadlines or assignees requires human decisions.

Exercise: Add the sentence "Reza said he will prepare a sample if he gets the chance" to the above example. Verify that the output does not report it as a firm commitment. To write more precise instructions, read the Prompt Engineering Guide.