Meeting Notes Templates

Reusable meeting notes templates — decisions, action items, and owners — that turn conversations into trackable outcomes.

Template Category Overview

Meeting notes are only useful if they capture the same things every time — decisions made, action items with owners and dates, and open questions — but in practice people scramble to set up a structure while the meeting is already moving. The framework is identical across meetings; only the content changes. A text expander drops in the full notes scaffold from a short trigger so you start every meeting already structured and spend your attention listening and capturing, not formatting. Lightning Assist inserts these in any document, wiki, or notes app — Notion, Google Docs, Obsidian, a plain text field — with placeholders for attendees, decisions, and action items. The same library works everywhere you take notes, so your format does not depend on which tool the meeting happens to use.

When to Use These Templates

Use meeting notes templates for any recurring or high-stakes conversation where outcomes need to be tracked: team meetings, one-on-ones, project syncs, client calls, and decision-making sessions. The structure (decisions, action items with owners and dates, open questions) is constant; only the content changes. Standardizing it means nothing important is lost to scrambling for a format mid-meeting, action items always have an owner and a date, and anyone can scan the notes later and know exactly what was decided and who owns what. A decision-log variant is especially valuable for capturing the reasoning behind choices that you will want to find — and justify — months later.

Example Templates in This Category

General meeting notes: agenda, decisions, action items with owners, and next steps.
One-on-one notes: talking points, follow-ups, and a running record over time.
Decision log entry: a focused capture of one decision, its context, and owner.

Example Templates in Practice

General meeting notes

The default template makes sure the high-value parts never get lost: a header with date and attendees, the agenda or topics, the decisions made, and — most importantly — action items with an owner and a due date each. Decisions and owned action items are what make notes worth keeping; everything else is context. Use placeholders for the attendees, the decisions, and each action item. Keep it on a trigger like ;notes so every meeting starts with the same structure and ends with clear, assignable outcomes instead of a wall of text.

# [#Meeting title#] — [#date#]
**Attendees:** [#names#]

## Agenda
- [#topic#]

## Decisions
- [#decision made#]

## Action items
- [ ] [#task#] — owner: [#name#], due: [#date#]

## Open questions
- [#question#]

One-on-one notes

A recurring one-on-one benefits from a lighter, running template: this week's talking points, follow-ups from last time, and a space for longer-term themes. The value compounds over time — a consistent format lets you scan past entries and never drop a thread. Use placeholders for the talking points and follow-ups. Keep it on a trigger like ;1on1 so each session starts structured and the running record stays easy to review before the next one.

# 1:1 with [#name#] — [#date#]
## Follow-ups from last time
- [ ] [#item#]

## This week
- [#talking point#]

## Their topics
- [#what they raised#]

## Notes / themes
[#longer-term observations#]

Decision log entry

Some decisions deserve to be captured on their own, not buried in meeting notes — especially architectural or policy decisions you will want to find later. A focused decision-log entry records the decision, the context and alternatives considered, the owner, and the date, so the reasoning survives even after the people change. Use placeholders for the decision, the context, and the owner. Keep it on a trigger like ;decision so capturing a decision well is a single keystroke and your team builds a searchable record of why things are the way they are.

## Decision: [#what was decided#]
**Date:** [#date#] · **Owner:** [#name#]
**Context:** [#why this came up#]
**Alternatives considered:** [#options#]
**Decision & rationale:** [#why this choice#]

How to Get Started

Build three snippets: general meeting notes (;notes), a one-on-one running template (;1on1), and a decision-log entry (;decision). Add placeholders for attendees, decisions, and action items with owners and dates. Type the trigger and it expands inline as you type — no hotkey needed (or use Hotkey Mode) — in Notion, Google Docs, Obsidian, or any notes field. Set up the structure before the meeting starts so you can spend the call listening and capturing instead of formatting. Use AI Enhance afterward to tidy rough notes into a shareable summary, and always make sure every action item has both an owner and a due date.

Pro Tips

Make every action item carry an owner and a due date — an unowned task in meeting notes almost never gets done.
Insert the template before the meeting starts so you can listen and capture instead of building structure while people talk.
Keep a separate decision-log variant for architectural or policy decisions you will want to find and justify months later.
Use AI Enhance to turn rough live notes into a clean, shareable summary without losing the decisions and action items.