At work · 2 of 4
Turn messy meeting notes into actions
Your rough notes become decisions, actions with names and dates, and the loose ends nobody owns. Then the follow-up email. Eight minutes. It will not remember what was said; only what you typed.
The tool
ChatGPT
The one most people already have. Writing, explaining, planning, and now images and voice in the same app. The free plan is enough for this.
Sort the notes
copy, paste into ChatGPT, change the parts in [brackets]
Here are my rough notes from a meeting. Turn them into three lists: decisions made, who agreed to do what by when, and open questions. Bullet points, no filler. If something is unclear, put it under open questions rather than guessing. [paste your notes]
What good looks like
Three short lists. Anything it could not tell from your notes is under open questions, not made up.
Write the follow-up
copy, paste into ChatGPT, change the parts in [brackets]
Turn the decisions and actions into a short follow-up email to the attendees. Bullet points, names next to actions, dates next to names. No preamble.
What good looks like
An email you could send after checking the names. If a date is missing it should say "date needed," not invent one.
Catch what was missed
copy, paste into ChatGPT, change the parts in [brackets]
Read my notes again. What did we talk about that has no decision and no owner? List those as open questions for the next meeting.
What good looks like
The loose ends. This list is usually the most useful thing in the whole exercise.
Watch out
Typed notes are yours. Recording a meeting is a different thing: tell people, and know your company's rule.
Now with your own thing. Same steps. The one on the fridge counts.