Prompt: Build a Meeting Agenda

Meetings without agendas are group therapy sessions that cost $500/hour in salary time. An agenda turns a meeting from "let's discuss things" into "let's decide things."

This prompt builds meeting agendas that produce outcomes. Use it to prompt build meeting agenda ai drafts that make meetings worth attending.

The Prompt

Build a meeting agenda for the following:

MEETING TYPE: [e.g., "Weekly team standup" or "Quarterly business review" or "Client strategy session"]
ATTENDEES: [Who is there and their roles]
DURATION: [Meeting length]
MEETING GOAL: [The single most important outcome - what must be decided or accomplished]
CONTEXT: [What happened since the last meeting, any urgent issues]
OPEN ITEMS: [Decisions needed, blockers to resolve, updates to share]

Structure the agenda as:

1. CHECK-IN (5% of meeting time)
   - Quick pulse check, no status updates here

2. DECISIONS NEEDED (40% of meeting time)
   - For each decision: the question, who presents context (1-2 minutes), discussion time, and how the decision will be made (consensus, vote, leader decides)

3. UPDATES (30% of meeting time)
   - Only updates that affect the group. Individual updates go in writing.
   - For each update: who delivers, time limit, what the group needs to know

4. BLOCKERS AND HELP NEEDED (15% of meeting time)
   - What is stuck and who can unblock it
   - Frame as: "I need [specific help] from [specific person] to unblock [specific thing]"

5. NEXT STEPS AND OWNERS (10% of meeting time)
   - Every action item gets a name and a date
   - Confirm the next meeting date

For each agenda item, specify:
- Time allocation in minutes
- Owner (who leads this item)
- Expected output (decision, information, action item)

Rules:
- Total time allocations must equal the meeting duration exactly
- No agenda item longer than 15 minutes. If it needs more, it needs its own meeting.
- No "roundtable" or "open discussion" items without a specific question to answer
- Decision items always come before update items
- Include a "parking lot" section for topics raised but not on agenda

The Pre-Meeting Send

Send the agenda 24 hours before the meeting with this addition: "Please review items 2a and 2c before the meeting. Come prepared with your recommendation."

Decisions happen faster when people think before the meeting instead of during it.

After the Meeting

Run a quick follow-up prompt: "Based on these meeting notes, generate an action item list with owners, deadlines, and the decisions made. Format as a bullet list I can share in Slack."

Meeting value is not in the meeting. It is in the actions that follow.

Build These Systems

Ready to implement? These step-by-step tutorials show you exactly how:

• How to Automate Recurring Meeting Agendas - Generate meeting agendas automatically based on project status and action items.
• How to Automate CRM Reporting for Sales Meetings - Generate pre-meeting pipeline reports and agendas automatically.
• How to Create an AI Meeting Scheduler from Email - Let AI handle meeting scheduling negotiations in email threads.