Ever left a meeting and thought, “what was the point of that?” Yeah, we get it. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Learn how creating a customized meeting minutes template in Asana can drive purposeful, action-focused meetings.
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Picture your upcoming week. How many meetings are you scheduled to attend? Of them, how many are you looking forward to? And most importantly, how many do you think will actually be productive—or relevant to your day-to-day work?
If you feel overloaded with unnecessary, unproductive meetings, you’re not alone. In fact, the 2022 Anatomy of Work Index found that workers lose an average of nearly three hours on unnecessary meetings every week.
So how can you turn inefficient, time-consuming meetings into productive, actionable ones? One way is with meeting minutes templates.
Meeting minutes are a formal note-taking format used to document meeting agendas, discussion topics, and outcomes. Despite their name, meeting minutes aren’t about meeting length—their purpose is to keep track of important decisions and resulting action items.
While similar in name and function, meeting minutes are different from meeting notes, which are informal and don’t have a set structure. And you don’t need both—typically, you'd use detailed meeting minutes to record more formal meetings (think company- or team-wide updates) and meeting notes in more casual settings, like recurring 1:1s. Technically, though, it’s up to you and the other people in your meeting. If you like the structure of meeting minutes as much as we do, you can adjust the format so it works with most meeting types.
Standard meeting minutes templates should include:
A meeting minutes template is a reusable resource used to organize, track, and share meeting minutes easily across your organization. Formal meeting minutes templates make taking meeting notes easier by providing structure for your meetings and visibility for the wider team. With meeting minutes templates, you can be confident your meetings will keep projects moving forward—instead of falling into the “should have been an email” category.
If you feel like you’re wasting time in meetings, it’s probably because you are. According to the Anatomy of Work Index, workers spend 129 hours in unnecessary meetings a year. And that’s once the meetings have started—meaning the stat doesn’t account for the work about work that goes into scheduling meetings, drafting agendas, and getting all attendees on the same page.
Creating a meeting minutes template can help reduce the upfront work that goes into planning and prepping for meetings. From scrap paper and notes templates to documents and spreadsheets, there are many ways you can keep track of your meeting minutes. But using a project management tool will give you the greatest advantage since it allows you to set up a templatized version of your meeting minutes, which you can then duplicate across teams and meetings.
Plus, digital meeting minutes templates are always up-to-date—there’s no such thing as an outdated version. They’re also more accessible for the broader team and don’t require manual follow-ups, further reducing the busywork that comes with setting up meetings and recording notes.
Other benefits of digital meeting minutes templates include:
Digital meeting minutes templates are easy to create and use. To start, create a basic template with the following sections:
From here, you can adjust your template depending on the type of meeting you’re using it for. As you move through your meeting, check off discussion topics you’ve covered and add any action-driven decisions to the “action items'' section. Then, assign these tasks to owners once the meeting is over—and watch all that talk turn to action.
Traditionally, you'd use a meeting minute template for formal meetings, such as company-wide meetings, board meetings, or stakeholder meetings. However, the structure provided by a meeting minutes template is also helpful for informal meetings like team meetings or meetings with specific purposes, such as kick-off meetings, post-mortems, and stand-up meetings. Simply adjust your meeting minutes template as needed.
An efficient meeting minutes template sets the foundation for an effective meeting agenda. When crafting your meeting agenda, include information that defines the meeting’s purpose and tells your team what to expect during the meeting. Make the agenda actionable by assigning discussion topics to owners and allocating enough time for each agenda item. Finally, send the meeting agenda, as well as any relevant pre-reading material, out in advance so your team members have time to prep.
All meeting minutes templates should include the same basic sections—meeting information, discussion topics, action items, and upcoming meeting information. From here, you can build out your template to include meeting-specific information, such as why you’re holding the meeting and what you hope to achieve. Once you’re actually using the template, fill out the agenda items with discussion points, and build out action items based on what the team discussed in the meeting.
You’ve probably had it happen before: You hold a productive meeting. You make important decisions and talk about next steps. You hop off the call feeling good, and then—nothing. No follow-up sent. No actions taken. And the momentum you thought you were building fizzles out. This is a pretty common occurrence with inefficient meetings. But meeting minutes templates change all that. With a digital meeting minutes template, you can create tasks based on action items, and make sure decisions actually get done. Simply add a to-do in the “action items'' section of your meeting minutes and assign it to the person who will own the task with a due date.
There are a lot of reasons meetings waste time. Maybe they lack focus, are too long, or happen too frequently (or too infrequently). Whatever the case, if you consistently leave meetings wondering what you spent the last half hour talking about—or why you even held the meeting at all—a meeting minute template can help. By identifying the purpose and the goal of each meeting, ensuring the right people are attending, and assigning action items in real-time, meeting minutes templates give structure and purpose to your meetings that will keep the momentum going long after you’ve ended the call.