How to write meeting action items people actually do

A meeting ends with everyone nodding. A week later, nothing has moved, and nobody remembers who was supposed to do what. The notes said "follow up on pricing". Follow up how? Who? By when?

The three parts of a good action item

• A verb and a result: "Send the revised pricing to Ada", not "pricing".
• One owner: a name, not "the team".
• A date: even "by Friday" is enough.

Examples

• Weak: "Look into the launch date."
• Strong: "Maya confirms the launch date with engineering by Thursday."
• Weak: "Budget discussion."
• Strong: "Tunde sends the Q4 budget draft to finance by the 20th."

Capture them while people are still in the room

Read the list back in the last two minutes of the meeting. People correct mistakes on the spot, and it is much harder for anyone to say they did not agree.

Send them the same day

An action list that arrives the next morning gets read. One that arrives next week does not. This is the part AI is best at: Hello Sam listens to the call, picks out the action items with their owners, and emails you the report straight after the meeting.

Check in once

One short message midway to the deadline is enough. Keep the list in one place so people always know where to look.