Five meeting notes templates for small teams: 1:1, weekly sync, retro, client call and decision meeting, in copyable Markdown

What every meeting notes template needs

Whatever the meeting, the notes have to answer three questions a month later: what did we decide, who owns the follow-up, and why did we decide it. The first two are lists. The third is one or two sentences of context that nobody writes down at the time and everybody wants later.

Two rules that make the templates work:

• Actions have an owner and a date, or they are not actions. "Look into pricing" is a wish. "Sam: draft pricing options by Friday 7 Nov" is an action.
• Decisions are written as the decision, not the discussion. "We will ship without the import feature; it moves to the next cycle" is a decision. Three paragraphs on why imports are hard are not.

The five templates compared

Template 1: the 1:1

A 1:1 is the report's meeting, not the manager's. The template gives them the first word and keeps a running thread so that nothing has to be re-explained.

**1:1 — [Name] and [Manager] — [Date]**

**Since last time**
- [Actions from the previous 1:1, ticked or carried]

**Their agenda**
- 
- 

**Manager's agenda**
- 

**How is the work going** (what is energising, what is draining)
- 

**Growth and support** (skills, role, anything blocking them)
- 

**Actions**
- [ ] [Owner]: [action] by [date]
- [ ] [Owner]: [action] by [date]

**Private notes** (manager only, not shared)
- 

Keep 1:1 notes in one running page per person, newest at the top, so the "since last time" section is a glance, not a search. In Atrix we attach the note to the recurring calendar event, so it opens from the invite.

Template 2: the weekly sync

The weekly sync is where small teams waste the most time, usually by turning it into status reading. The template puts status in writing before the meeting and leaves the meeting for blockers and decisions.

**Weekly sync — [Team] — week of [Date]**

**Written before the meeting (one line each)**
- [Name]: last week / this week / blocked on
- [Name]: last week / this week / blocked on

**Blockers to resolve now**
- 

**Decisions**
- 

**Metrics** (two or three numbers, same every week)
- 

**Actions**
- [ ] [Owner]: [action] by [date]

If your work tracker has cycles or sprints, the metrics line can be the cycle's burndown and the number of items rolled over; the sync then becomes a ten-minute look at the board plus the blockers.

Template 3: the retrospective

A retrospective at the end of a one- to four-week cycle is the cheapest process improvement a small team can buy, as long as it produces two or three changes and not a wall of sticky notes.

**Retrospective — [Cycle name] — [Date]**

**The numbers**
- Planned: [n] items. Finished: [n]. Rolled over: [n].
- Cycle goal: [goal]. Met: yes / partly / no.

**What went well**
- 
- 

**What did not**
- 
- 

**What we will change** (pick at most three)
1. [Change] — owner: [name] — we will know it worked when: [signal]
2. 
3. 

**Carried from last retro** (did we actually do them?)
- 

The "carried from last retro" section is the one most templates leave out, and it is the one that keeps retrospectives honest. If the same change appears three retros in a row, it is not a change, it is a wish.

Template 4: the client call

Client call notes have two readers: your team, and the client, who should receive a version within a day. Writing the shared version first keeps the notes factual.

**Client call — [Client] — [Date]**

**Attendees:** [client side] / [our side]
**Purpose:** [one line]

**What they told us**
- 
- 

**What we committed to**
- [Commitment] by [date]

**What they committed to**
- [Commitment] by [date]

**Decisions**
- 

**Open questions**
- 

**Next call:** [date] — **Owner:** [name]

**Internal notes** (not sent to client)
- Risks, pricing context, anything to flag

File client notes against the company in your CRM, not in a personal folder. The next person to speak to that client should be able to read the last three calls in two minutes.

Template 5: the decision meeting

A decision meeting exists to make one decision. The template forces the options onto the page before the meeting starts, so the meeting is spent choosing, not discovering.

**Decision — [Decision to make] — [Date]**

**Decision owner:** [name, the one person who decides]
**Deadline:** [date], and what happens if we miss it

**Context** (three sentences max)


**Options**
| Option | Cost | Risk | Reversible? |
|---|---|---|---|
| A: | | | |
| B: | | | |
| C: do nothing | | | |

**Decision**
We will [option] because [one sentence].

**Rejected and why**
- B: 
- C: 

**Actions**
- [ ] [Owner]: [action] by [date]

**Revisit on:** [date, or "not before" date]

Rejected options with reasons are the most valuable line in the whole set. Six months later, someone will propose option B again, and the answer is in the notes.

How to set these up in five steps

1. Pick the three you hold. Most five-person teams run 1:1s, a weekly sync and a retro. Add the client and decision templates when those meetings start happening.
2. Put each template where the meeting is. Notes nobody can find are notes nobody writes. Attach the template to the recurring calendar event, or keep one page per meeting series.
3. Make the actions list the source of truth. Copy each action into your work tracker as an issue with the owner and date, or the actions list becomes a second, untracked backlog.
4. Decide what gets kept. Decisions and actions are kept forever. Discussion can be deleted after a quarter. A database of meeting pages with a date and type property lets you filter to "decisions this quarter" in one click.
5. Review the template, not just the meeting. Once a quarter, delete any section nobody fills in.

Where meeting notes live in Atrix

In Atrix, a note attaches to the calendar event itself, so the 1:1 and the weekly sync open from the invite and the history sits on the recurring series. Longer-lived notes, such as retros and decision records, live in pages: a page can be turned into a database whose sub-pages are the rows, each with properties you define, so a "Decisions" database with a date and status property is a one-minute setup. Pages co-edit live with cursors, keep version history, and export as Markdown, which means these templates paste in and out unchanged.

What Atrix does not do today: there is no AI meeting recorder or transcription, and databases have no relations or formula properties. For scheduling the meetings themselves, the calendar handles recurring events, Google and Outlook sync, and public booking links for client calls.

FAQ

What should a meeting notes template include?

Date and attendees, purpose, decisions, actions with an owner and a date, and open questions. Everything else is optional. The decisions and actions lists are the parts people come back to.

What is the best format for 1:1 meeting notes?

One running page per person, newest entry at the top, with the report's agenda first, the manager's second, and a shared actions list. Keep private manager notes in a separate section that is not shared.

How long should meeting notes be?

Half a page for a 1:1 or weekly sync, one page for a retro or decision meeting. If the notes are longer than the meeting was, they are a transcript, not notes.

Should meeting notes be shared with the whole team?

Sync, retro and decision notes should be readable by everyone on the team. 1:1 notes are shared between the two people. Client notes are shared with the client in a version without the internal section.

What is a decision log and do I need one?

A decision log is a list of decisions with the date, the owner, the options rejected and the reason. A team of more than three people needs one, because the reason for a decision is the first thing forgotten.

Next step

Set up a page per meeting series in Atrix pages and attach notes to the recurring events in the calendar; every template above pastes in as Markdown.