A meeting notes template you can copy and paste

Good meeting notes answer three questions for someone who was not there: what was decided, who is doing what by when, and what is still open. Everything else is optional. The template below is built around those three questions. It is plain Markdown, so it works in any notes app, wiki, document editor or email.

The template

Copy this, delete what you do not need, and fill in the rest.

# [Meeting name] · [Date]

**Time:** 10:00–10:45
**Where:** Room 3 / video call link
**Attendees:** Name, Name, Name
**Absent:** Name
**Note taker:** Name

## Purpose
One sentence: why this meeting exists and what should come out of it.

## Agenda
1. Topic (owner, 10 min)
2. Topic (owner, 15 min)
3. Topic (owner, 10 min)
4. Any other business (5 min)

## Discussion
### 1. Topic
- Key point or argument, and who made it if it matters.
- Options considered.

### 2. Topic
- ...

## Decisions
| Decision | Decided by | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| We launch on 14 November. | Guðrún (project lead) | 2026-09-26 | Depends on the security review. |

## Action items
| Action | Owner | Due | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finish the security review | Ari | 2026-11-07 | Open |
| Draft the launch email in English and Icelandic | Sophie | 2026-11-10 | Open |

## Open questions
- Question, and who will find the answer.

## Parking lot
- Topics raised but not discussed, to pick up later.

## Next meeting
**Date:** 2026-10-03, 10:00
**Draft agenda:** Review action items; topic; topic.

What each part is for

Header (time, attendees, absent, note taker). Months later, the first question is often “who was in that meeting?”. Listing who was absent matters too: they are the people who need the notes most. Naming the note taker makes clear who to ask when something is unclear.

Purpose. One sentence, written before the meeting if you can. If nobody can write it, the meeting may not need to happen. After the meeting, it tells a reader whether the notes are relevant to them.

Agenda. Topics with an owner and a time box. Sharing it in advance lets people prepare, and the time boxes help the chair move on when a topic runs long.

Discussion. Keep this short. The goal is not a transcript; it is the reasoning a future reader needs to understand the decision: the options considered and the main arguments. Formal minutes often record only motions and outcomes here.

Decisions. The most valuable part of the notes, and the most often skipped. Write each decision as a full sentence that makes sense out of context (“We launch on 14 November”, not “Launch: yes”). Record who made it and when, so there is no argument later about whether it was agreed.

Action items. Every task gets one owner, a due date and a status. “The team will look into it” is not an action item. Our guide on writing action items from a meeting goes into detail.

Open questions. Things that came up but could not be answered in the meeting. Give each one a person who will find out; otherwise they quietly disappear.

Parking lot. Topics someone raised that were off the agenda. Writing them down lets you move on without the person feeling ignored.

Next meeting. Date, time and a draft agenda. The first item is usually a review of the action items from this meeting.

Meeting notes or meeting minutes?

The terms overlap. “Notes” usually means an informal record for the people involved. “Minutes” usually means a formal record of a governing body, such as a board or committee, that is approved at the next meeting and kept. Minutes tend to record motions, votes and decisions rather than the discussion. If your organisation has rules or bylaws about minutes, follow them; the board variant below is a starting point, not a legal standard.

Variant: 1:1 meeting

A 1:1 is a running conversation, so keep one document for the whole relationship and add the newest meeting at the top.

## 2026-09-28

**Their topics**
- ...

**My topics**
- ...

**Feedback** (both ways)
- ...

**Agreed**
- [ ] Action (owner, due date)

**Carry over to next time**
- ...

Let the other person’s topics come first. Keep private or sensitive points out of shared notes unless you both agree they belong there.

Variant: daily standup

Standups are short and repeat every day, so the notes should be too. Many teams write only blockers and the actions that come from them.

## Standup · 2026-09-28

**Blockers**
- Sophie: waiting for the final launch date. Guðrún to confirm by 14:00.

**Follow-ups after standup**
- Ari and Jón: 15 minutes on the Icelandic onboarding copy.

If a topic needs more than a minute, move it to a follow-up with named people instead of discussing it in front of everyone.

Variant: board or committee minutes

Formal minutes are usually more structured and less detailed about discussion.

# [Organisation] Board meeting · [Date]

**Present:** Name (Chair), Name, Name
**Apologies:** Name
**In attendance:** Name (for item 3)
**Quorum:** Yes
**Minutes taken by:** Name

## 1. Approval of previous minutes
The minutes of [date] were approved.

## 2. Declarations of interest
None declared.

## 3. [Item]
Summary of the paper presented.
**Resolved:** That the board approves ...
Proposed by Name, seconded by Name. Carried (4 for, 0 against, 1 abstention).

## 4. Actions
| Action | Owner | Due |
|---|---|---|

## 5. Date of next meeting
[Date]

Signed (Chair): ____________  Date: ________

Tips for taking notes during the meeting

• Write decisions and action items the moment they happen, and read them back aloud: “So Ari owns the security review, due 7 November?” That one sentence prevents most follow-up confusion.
• Do not try to write everything down. If you need a full record, record the meeting, with everyone’s agreement, and take notes on the parts that matter.
• Send the notes the same day, while people still remember the meeting and can correct mistakes.
• Put the notes where people will look, next to the project they belong to, not only in email.

If you record meetings, tell everyone at the start and stop if someone objects. Our guide on recording meetings with consent covers how.

Where Hearkeeper fits

Hearkeeper is a Mac app that is not released yet. It records your microphone and your computer’s audio on the Mac, so it works with any call app and in the room, with no bot joining. Every recording starts with a consent step and a consent receipt, and the recording pill stays on screen.

After the meeting, a local language model fills in much of this template for you: a summary, decisions, and to-dos with who and when, where every line links to the second it was said so you can check it. Transcription and summaries run on the Mac with no API key, and notes export to Markdown, so they fit straight into the template above.

If you would rather check notes than write them, join the waitlist.