Prompts to prepare a meeting
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Meetings don't need more preparation time — they need preparation structure: an agenda organized around decisions (not topics), a pre-read that takes three minutes, rehearsal for the hard conversation, and minutes where every action has an owner and a date. Four prompts, ten minutes total, visibly different meeting.
The underlying trick: every template forces the question "what must be DECIDED?" — the question most agendas never ask.
The four templates
Your recurring meeting drifts. Rebuild the agenda around what must be decided, and watch it end early.
Build the agenda for: [MEETING, PARTICIPANTS + ROLES, DURATION]. Raw topic list: [PASTE EVERYTHING PEOPLE WANT TO DISCUSS]. Transform it: 1) sort every topic into DECIDE / DISCUSS (input needed, decision later) / INFORM (could be an email — mark these for removal); 2) per DECIDE item: the decision question in one sentence, options on the table, who decides ([CONSENSUS/OWNER/BOSS]), time box; 3) order: decisions first while energy is high, discussions after, five minutes buffer; 4) per item: what participants must read/bring — one line. Flag honestly: if fewer than [2] real decisions remain, say "this meeting could be an email" and draft that email instead.
You need the room to arrive informed — which means a brief they'll actually read.
Write a pre-read for [MEETING] from my notes. Readers: [WHO + WHAT THEY CARE ABOUT]. Hard limit: one page / [300] words, 3-minute read. Structure: 1) "Why this meeting" — the decision(s) on the table, first; 2) status in facts — numbers with comparisons, no narrative padding; 3) the options with one honest pro and con each (steelman both — no strawman option B); 4) my recommendation, one sentence, clearly marked as mine; 5) "come prepared to answer:" — the 2 questions participants should think about. Rules: no history lesson (link the old doc instead: [LINK]), no suspense — recommendation visible, so discussion starts at the hard part. Notes: [PASTE]
Budget defense, project stop, escalation with another team — the meeting you keep mentally replaying. Rehearse it once, properly.
Rehearse a difficult meeting with me. Situation: [WHAT'S AT STAKE]. The other side: [WHO, THEIR INTERESTS, THEIR LIKELY POSITION, POWER RELATION]. My goal: [BEST OUTCOME] — and my walk-away line: [MINIMUM ACCEPTABLE]. Round 1: play the other side realistically (not cartoonishly hostile). Open the meeting as they would. After each of my responses: break character briefly — one line on what worked, what sounded defensive, and the stronger phrasing. Then continue in character. Escalate once mid-way: [THE MOVE YOU FEAR, E.G. "THEY QUESTION YOUR DATA" / "THEY GO OVER YOUR HEAD"]. End with: my 3 strongest sentences from the rehearsal, and the 2 traps I fell into.
The meeting happened. Ninety seconds of pasting turns your fragments into minutes people can act on.
Turn my raw meeting notes into minutes. Attendees: [LIST]. Purpose was: [ONE LINE]. Format: 1) decisions made — each as one clear sentence with who decided; 2) actions table: action (starts with a verb), owner (one name, never a team), due date, dependency if any; 3) open questions — parked, with who owns getting the answer; 4) "discussed, no decision" — one line each, so it's on record without pretending it concluded. Rules: no prose recap of the conversation flow; where my notes name no owner or date, insert [OWNER?] / [DATE?] instead of guessing; keep exact numbers and commitments verbatim. Notes: [PASTE — FRAGMENTS FINE]
Frequently asked questions
Can AI join and transcribe my meetings?
Transcription tools exist and work; consent and company policy come first (recording laws vary). These templates deliberately need only YOUR notes — no recording, no bot in the room, no privacy review, and they run on any assistant.
How far ahead should the pre-read go out?
24 hours is the sweet spot — enough to read, not enough to forget. Send it with the agenda's "come prepared to answer" questions in the invite text itself; the two together do more than any meeting-culture memo.
Does the decision-first agenda work for creative/brainstorm meetings?
Adapted, yes: the "decision" becomes "what we converge on" (three concepts to develop further, one direction to kill). Even ideation benefits from a named convergence step — otherwise it ends where the calendar does, not where the thinking does.
What about recurring status meetings?
Run the agenda template on one honestly: if everything sorts into INFORM, the meeting IS an email (the template will tell you and draft it). Keep a shorter, decision-only version at half the frequency — the calendar-hour save is usually the biggest win on this page.