ChatGPT prompt for turning meeting notes into action items

This is the prompt we run after every meeting, internal or client, to turn raw notes into a summary, decisions, and an action table. Its core rule: when an owner or deadline was never stated, the output says “TBC” instead of making one up.

The prompt to copy

Here are raw notes from a meeting on {date} with {attendees}. Produce:
1. A 5-line summary of what was discussed.
2. **Decisions made** — bullet list, one line each.
3. **Action items** — table: action, owner, deadline. Only include actions actually stated or clearly implied; if the owner or deadline is unclear, write "TBC" — do not guess.
4. **Open questions** we didn't resolve.
Notes: {paste}

Replace the fields in curly braces (date, attendees), then paste your notes exactly as they are: typos, fragments, and shorthand included.

When to use it

After any internal or client meeting, from live-typed notes or a transcript. It is the first link in a short chain: this prompt produces the summary, a second prompt turns that summary into the follow-up email. Fifteen minutes of writing becomes three minutes of review.

What you get back

1. A 5-line summary you could forward to the client.
2. The decisions made, one line each.
3. An action table: action, owner, deadline.
4. The open questions, the ones that usually get lost.

Real example: raw notes → action table

Input: notes from a 45-minute client call, typed live by the ops manager of an 8-person agency. An excerpt, as-is:

packaging v2 — dana likes direction B mostly, wants the brown warmer?? priya to try 2 variants
someone needs to send them the brand guidelines pdf again, they lost it
next call in 2 wks same slot

Output, the part that matters:

Action	Owner	Deadline
Design 2 packaging variants with warmer brown	Priya	TBC
Re-send brand guidelines PDF to the client	TBC	TBC
Schedule next call	Tom	In 2 weeks, same slot

Notice what the AI did not do: it invented no owner for the PDF and no deadline for the variants, because nobody said them in the meeting. That is the prompt working, not failing. The human checkpoint, assigning the “TBC” cells, takes 30 seconds.

The full worked example (complete notes, summary, and the follow-up email generated right after) ships inside the kit, with playbook P1 chaining both prompts.