We’ve all been there. When you’ve reached your limit and can’t seem to remember those next steps Barb asked for in your last virtual meeting.
This feeling hits you like a ton of bricks, always at the worst times—like halfway through a presentation or right after you sign off in a “what just happened” kind of way. Luckily, there’s no reason to panic because the solution is simple: check the meeting minutes!
Meetings are a critical component of the workplace and make up about 15% of an organization’s total time spent. That’s almost a full day’s work!
Without reliable software to track meeting minutes, teams may lose track of critical conversations for solving major problems plaguing the company. And by accurately capturing what happens in those meetings, you’re investing in the future health, functionality, and effectiveness of your team.
Still, the big question remains: how do you write meeting minutes correctly? That’s where we come in! 💪🏼
By the end of this post, you’ll have a solid grasp of how to write meeting minutes and 10 customizable meeting minutes templates for ClickUp, Excel, and Word to keep your team informed.
Pop on your blue-light glasses, open your digital notepad, and follow along!
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Summarize this article for me pleaseMeeting minutes (also referred to as minutes of meeting or MOM) provide written documentation of what occurs during a meeting so there’s a clear record for everyone involved—whether they attended or not. They are great tools for organizations that meet regularly for events like a project kickoff meeting or a status update. Done correctly, they serve as a window into past discussions, helping you revisit ideas and facilitate problem-solving. The information also provides a quick way for higher-ups to stay updated on big changes. Or if a member missed the invite, they can reference the minutes and follow up with the appropriate person for further questions or comments. But our personal favorite way to use meeting minutes is for team recognition. If a client compliments your performance on a project—that goes in the minutes! Who doesn’t love healthy team morale? 👏 The final copy is then proofread for any mistakes or typos and sent to all team members, including anyone who missed the meeting or who would benefit from knowing what happened. This guarantees everyone has access to vital information in a timely manner and prevents PTO-induced FOMO at work. 💞
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Summarize this article for me pleaseSome sections will be longer than others. The title, date, and time should take up no more than a line, while the agenda summary may take a few paragraphs. The attendees and action items should be succinct, bullet-point lists.
Each section should align with the meeting agenda. This helps the reader understand the order of events and easily hop around to locate a specific point! Think of your meeting minutes as the Spark Notes of the meeting—they’re easy to digest but will still give you the whole story!
If additional topics are covered that weren’t planned on the agenda, you can create a new section or designate another as “open discussion” or “other items” to indicate an issue arose that wasn’t initially planned.
Capturing all of this information is critical to ensuring the notes are comprehensive and thorough. That’s why you should always start with a meeting minutes template to make sure nothing is missed. 🤓
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Summarize this article for me pleaseA meeting minutes template is a pre-formatted document that outlines everything you need to take meaningful minutes from a meeting. The right template will allow you to add key information like who was in attendance, the beginning and end of the meeting, key points, and more. Plus, meeting minutes templates work with different document collaboration software to help you edit, customize, and reuse them for future meetings. ClickUp Docs allows rich formatting and slash commands to work more efficiently
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Summarize this article for me pleaseThe best meeting minutes templates will be compatible with or built into your preferred document editing tool. This makes it possible to integrate your template with your other work meeting tools, or even your virtual meeting platform! In this case, making sure your meeting minutes template aligns with your tech stack is another major asset.
These elements will ensure that every meeting is worthwhile and that everyone walks away with the information they need. Combined with other meeting materials and recordings, your meeting minutes template will be an invaluable asset in maximizing the productivity of every meeting.
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Summarize this article for me pleaseTo help you find the template you need in time for your next brainstorming session, use this list of our top 10 meeting minutes templates for your favorite document editors. Find detailed template descriptions and feature breakdowns, plus, access each template directly from this article!
The Meeting Minutes Template by ClickUp makes it easier than ever to include all the crucial details of a meeting using a one-page ClickUp Doc that can be edited, shared, and copied for future meetings. This template comes pre-formatted with separate sections for general information, your meeting agenda, updates, announcements, and more. It’s also highly visual, with customizable styling features to add checklists, tables, media, data, and more to help members quickly digest the minutes. Especially for routine meetings with the team, this beginner-friendly template covers all of your bases and is a great starting point for those who are new to writing meeting minutes in general! If you’re looking for a simple but thorough structure that makes organization efficient—no matter the type of meeting—this Doc template should be your go-to.
Not only is the Meeting Minutes Framework Template by ClickUp beginner-friendly, easy to customize, and thorough—it also exists within ClickUp’s powerful and collaborative Docs feature that allows you to work alongside your team with real-time editing. Summarize the important details of your meetings, including attendees, action items, and links to additional resources, all of which you can conveniently organize as separate subpages within your meeting minutes document. You can also use this framework template to track key items learned, outcomes for stakeholders, and tasks for designated teammates to complete based on the listed action items. The depth of this template makes it the perfect resource for keeping everyone informed, engaged, and on the same page, literally. Add emojis, images, formatting, and styling options to instantly structure your notes and make your writing stand out. Plus, share your Doc instantly via URL, or attach it to your task for easy access at any time. And did we mention ClickUp Docs are connected directly to your workflows?
Taking a slightly different organizational approach to your minutes, the Minutes of Meeting (MoM) Template by ClickUp applies a pre-built task to your workspace. This simplifies and standardizes the traditional note-taking process by structuring your recurring details and action items in an interactive List. In this task, you’ll find a Getting Started Guide in the task description with step-by-step breakdowns of how to use the template in the most productive way possible. You’ll also have access to multiple Help Docs to make the most of ClickUp’s other key features including subtasks, Custom Fields, Checklists, and more. Beyond the task description, this template automatically populates four subtasks to track attendance, the next meeting’s items, address current issues, and view this week’s meeting agenda. And to double-check that all items were covered, your minutes writer can use the post-meeting assessment checklist to determine whether the meeting was a success based on its goals.
The requirements of your meeting minutes may differ when it comes to teams across different industries and use cases. Luckily, ClickUp offers tons of templates to remedy this very challenge! Starting with the Board of Directors Meeting Minutes Template by ClickUp. Like the other templates in this guide, this meeting minutes Doc template allows you to record and tag all attendees, along with the agenda and action items. But your board of directors may have specific expectations that vary from your typical meeting, and this template gets that—so you also have the ability to record voting results for each action item and provide high-level meeting notes. You can also quickly share the document with all other key players using the “Share Doc” button in ClickUp!
And more! If you need a comprehensive meeting minutes template for project management, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better template than this one.
Not quite ready to take on the meeting minutes? Start by taking detailed notes! The Meeting Notes Template by ClickUp is the perfect bare-bones meeting notes template to organize the details of your meeting and keep team members aligned.
Sections in this template include:
Together, this one-pager template will help you take basic notes that could supplement other meeting materials—including the meeting minutes!
Another template that can assist with note-taking during meetings is Recurring Meeting Notes by ClickUp. This template is ideal if you conduct regular meetings and want to track progress with each recurring meeting.
You can use this document to manage all agenda items, list to-dos, refresh your memory from previous meetings with a high-level overview, and assign different action items to team members. Of course, you can also include details such as the date of past, current, and future meetings, the specific meeting purpose, attendees, and absentees. Additionally, indicate whether the number of attendees meets the quorum for each meeting.
Want a solution to help track meetings from start to finish? Add the Meeting Tracker Template by ClickUp to your workspace! This detailed template includes all information in a comprehensive and actionable List to plan, prepare, and manage action items as you go.
You can use the template to track all types of meetings and projects, from one-on-ones and quarterly business reviews to birthday celebrations and other events that venture outside of traditional business meetings.
The template includes many components to assist with every aspect of meeting tracking, including three statuses, eight Custom Fields, and four view types.
While ClickUp is a great solution for keeping all meeting documents in a single location with optimal shareability and other features, you may want to use a meeting minutes template for Excel if your organization already invests in Microsoft products. This Meeting Minutes Executive Tracking List is a basic spreadsheet template for keeping track of details in executive meetings.
This XLS-formatted meeting minutes template uses a simple sheet layout with multiple columns to track all meeting details. Include information such as descriptions of tasks, assignees, due dates, required resources, and executive status records.
If you use Microsoft Word regularly, you may benefit from a Meeting Minutes Template for Word, with Microsoft offering a number of meeting minutes templates. You’ll find plenty of customizable document templates for all types of meetings, including admin meetings, PTA meetings, and this classic meeting minutes template for general team meetings.
Can’t find a suitable template for Word? Microsoft also allows you to create documents from scratch.
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Summarize this article for me pleaseThe way you record meeting minutes will depend on your writing style and your ability to capture notes quickly. No need to worry about speed right off the bat though, with a little time and experience, you’ll develop a rhythm for capturing the right information. That said, here are a few reminders to help you create the best meeting minutes of all time:
Notes and minutes are different—and they need to be treated that way! While meeting notes can be formal or informal, meeting minutes have a standard set of practices and information included. Sometimes meeting planners assign facilitators to take notes on a meeting and later ask the same person to create meeting minutes from those notes. Other times, the meeting planner may even use these terms synonymously! You’ll likely sacrifice the consistency and quality of your minutes by doing this. Putting too much responsibility on the notetaker can lead to less comprehensive notes or gaps in sections of the meeting minutes. By overloading one person with both jobs, you may compromise their ability to do either task successfully. So if you’re responsible for the minutes, give them 100% of your focus.
Including extra information can get in the reader’s way, making the minutes harder to follow. A better idea is to only include the most salient points.
Trust me, you’re not going to want to share your raw meeting minutes without a heavy edit. Instead, use your first pass as the foundation to structure your final draft. During the editing process, you’ll craft the notes into a coherent narrative that follows your team’s consistent minutes structure.
During the meeting, focus on the information. Don’t worry about the organization of your notes until you’re ready to edit—that’s when the minutes take shape!
Re-reading and re-writing the notes will help you better remember the discussion and give you a fresh perspective on each topic.
Pro tip: Rather than trusting your good old-fashioned pen and paper for this job, try taking structured notes in a digital notepad!
Tools like ClickUp’s Notepad and Chrome Extension provide a quick and intuitive solution for fast note-taking. Instantly add formatting and style with rich text editing to make your notes more thorough, even mid-meeting.
Don’t leave anything to chance! If any notes or comments seem unclear, reach out to that person for clarification if you can. What’s most important is that you get the facts correct for those who couldn’t attend or need a refresher. Accuracy over speed!
Your action items will be one of the shortest components of your meeting minutes but possibly the most important!
This is the section where you record the next steps for solving problems addressed during the meeting. That’s why every action item should include a few hard and fast details:
This is how meeting minutes promote accountability and help participants track tasks more effectively. Our suggestion? Craft your meeting minutes in a dynamic document tool that allows you to add and assign comments to your writing.
It’s always a good idea to follow the AP Stylebook when finalizing your summary. The meeting minutes should be edited, proofread, and free of errors. Typos pull the reader’s attention away from the matters at hand and honestly, they’re just not professional.
Check, double-check, and have someone else check your work. Eliminate mistakes and let the reader stay focused on the content.
The primary purpose of meeting minutes is to convey what happened.
Consult your notes or the meeting recording to ensure you’re sharing the correct information. And instead of guessing, talk to your peers! Do everything you can to verify that the minutes are reliable.
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