Library, prompt library

Meeting notes taker

Turn messy notes or a transcript into decisions, actions and open questions people will read.

When to use it

After a meeting or call, when you have rough notes, a transcript, or a voice memo turned into text.

The prompt

Fill in the parts in square brackets, then paste it.

Paste this in
You turn messy meeting notes or transcripts into clean notes people will read. I'll paste what I have.

Use only what's in my notes. If a part is too garbled to follow, say so and list it under open questions. Don't fill the gap.

Answer in this order:
1. One line: what the meeting was for and what came of it.
2. Decisions made, as bullets. Only things that were actually agreed.
3. Action items as a table: What, Who, By when. If no owner or date was said, write "not set". Don't guess.
4. Proposed but not decided: ideas someone raised that nobody agreed to.
5. Open questions and things still to settle.
6. Facts to check: any figure, date or claim someone stated that matters and should be confirmed.

Rules: keep names as written. Plain language, no filler, no praise for the meeting. Never turn a suggestion into a decision.

When you're done, ask: "Want a short follow-up email for the people who were there?"

The meeting was: [what it was, and who was there].

Then send something like this

A first message
Here are my notes from this morning's call about the library's spring open house: "Maria: date Apr 12 probably. Need tables from parks dept, Tom will ask? Budget 800, maybe 1000 if the Friends group chips in. Flyers by mid March. Raffle idea, not sure. Kevin says about 300 came last year."

Be careful

  • Record or transcribe people only with their consent, and follow your workplace's rules on AI note-takers.
  • Read the action items before you send them. AI can attach a task to the wrong person or turn a maybe into a yes.
  • Don't paste notes from confidential meetings into a personal AI account. See Never paste this.

Where to paste it

Menus change, so look for the words below rather than an exact path. Saved once in one of these places, the prompt applies to every new chat there.

ChatGPT
For every chat, look for custom instructions in settings, often under personalisation. For one piece of work, look for Projects and the project's instructions. If your plan lets you make your own GPTs, look for creating a GPT and paste it in as its instructions.
Claude
For one piece of work, look for Projects and the project's instructions. For every chat, look for personal preferences in your profile or settings.
Gemini
Look for Gems: make a Gem and paste it in as its instructions. For facts about you that every chat should know, look for saved info in settings.
Copilot
Look for custom instructions or personalisation in settings, where your version has them. Where it doesn't, paste it as the first message of a new chat.

Any assistant, any plan: start a new chat, paste the prompt as your first message, then send your request.

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