This is the exact template I use, every meeting, without exception. Attendees, decisions, actions, next steps, laid out so I’m not thinking about structure while someone’s still talking.

Duplicate it for each meeting and save it under the meeting name and date. No signup, no email required.

What’s in it

• Meeting details: date, time, chair, who took the minutes
• Attendees and apologies
• Decisions, one line each
• Actions, with an owner and a deadline for each
• Next meeting date
• A circulation record, so there’s a clear trail of who approved what

Why I still use this

After years taking minutes in rooms where the stakes were real, this is what’s left once everything unnecessary got stripped away. It’s not clever. It just means I never have to think about the shape of the document, only what’s actually being said.

If you’re brand new to this, my quick-reference checklist covers what to do in the room itself. This is what I open once I’m there.

Hope it’s as useful for you as it has been for me.

– Erin