🤝 The prompt I run before every meeting
Some meetings are worth an hour. Most are worth the eight minutes it takes to make one decision – the trick is knowing which decision before you walk in.
So before every meeting on my calendar, I paste the invite into AI with this prompt. Thirty seconds. It has saved me more hours this year than anything else I do with AI.
Here's a meeting I'm about to walk into: [paste the invite - title, attendees, agenda, any email thread]
Give me, in under 200 words total:
1. The ONE decision this meeting actually exists to make.
2. My three best questions, ranked - the ones that move that decision.
3. What each attendee probably wants out of this, based on their role.
4. The trap - where this meeting will waste its time, and the one sentence I can use to steer it back.
5. My 30-second opener.👉 Copy it from the Meeting Kit →
Why it works: most meetings drift because nobody named the decision. When you walk in already knowing it – plus the question that unlocks it – you’re the most prepared person in the room. Nobody can tell the difference between that and the smartest.
- The part people skip: number 4, the trap. Every recurring meeting has one – the tangent it always dies in. Having the redirect sentence ready is worth more than the agenda.
The follow-up move: when the meeting ends, paste your rough notes back into the same chat: “Draft the follow-up email – decisions, owners, deadlines, under 150 words.” The person who sends the follow-up first owns the meeting’s memory. That’s now always you. (That prompt is in the Kit too.)
🎁 Free download: The Meeting Kit
The before-the-meeting prompt ready to copy, plus the follow-up email prompt and the rest of the kit.
Related guides
- Turn Your Next Meeting into Action-Ready Minutes
- 3 AI Prompts I Reuse Every Day: The Editor, the Extractor, and the Explainer
- The 6 AI Prompts I Use Most (They’re Shorter Than You’d Think)
Frequently asked questions
What should I ask AI before a meeting?
Paste the invite (title, attendees, agenda and any email thread) and ask for, in under 200 words: the one decision the meeting exists to make, your three best questions ranked, what each attendee probably wants, the trap where the meeting will waste its time plus one sentence to steer it back, and a 30-second opener.
Why does naming the decision make meetings better?
Most meetings drift because nobody named the decision. If you walk in already knowing it, plus the question that unlocks it, you're the most prepared person in the room.
How can AI help after the meeting?
Paste your rough notes back into the same chat and ask: "Draft the follow-up email - decisions, owners, deadlines, under 150 words." Whoever sends the follow-up first owns the meeting's memory.
