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Turn meeting notes into action items for your tracker

Practice: Asking for a format you can use. About 5 minutes.

About this exercise

You took the notes at Thursday's ops meeting and need to paste the action items into your team's tracker, which only accepts plain text. You want exactly 4 numbered lines, one per action item, each written as Owner - task - due date, under 70 words in total. Leave out ideas the group parked, and if a task changed hands during the meeting, list the new owner. Write a prompt that gets you exactly that.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

  • Asking to "list the action items". The AI picks its own layout, often bullets under bold headings with extra notes, which won't paste cleanly. Try: Be exact: "Exactly 4 numbered lines, one per action item."
  • Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total word limit and it often lands over it. Try: Cap each part instead: "Keep each line under 12 words."
  • Not giving the line format. The AI writes tasks as sentences, so some lines lose the owner or the date. Try: Add: "Write each line as Owner - task - due date."
  • Missing the handoff. The AI often keeps the first name it saw for a task, even when the notes move it to someone else later. Try: Add: "If a task changed hands, list the new owner."
  • Not saying where it goes. Without a filter the AI adds a 'Here are the action items' intro, bold headings and the parked ideas. Try: Add: "Plain text for our tracker. Only the 4 lines. Skip parked ideas."

What a strong prompt includes

  • Says how many items
  • Gives the line format
  • Handles the handoff
  • Sets a word limit
  • Asks for plain text

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