Defining Action Items

Action items have a higher chance of getting done the first time if it’s clear what to do and it has a single owner.

A lot of our meetings produce things to do afterwards, and whether you’re writing meeting notes by hand or relying on AI to summarize for you, those action items are critical to maintain progress.

An action item might be a single task or need to be broken down into multiple actions by the person that is responsible for it.

I like to use this format: {{ Person’s first name }} to {{ verb }} {{ concise context }} by {{ date }}

Here are some examples:

1. Angela to react to current state data architecture by Tuesday 8/20 EOD

2. Brooks to send proposal for discovery & design intensive by Friday 8/23 EOD

3. Carl to build user interface to manage household relationships by Friday 9/6 EOD

Did you notice how each of those is increasingly more work bundled in the action item?

1. Angela has a single task that might take an hour to half a day for this work

2. Brooks might have multiple tasks to write the proposal, compile pricing, get it reviewed by someone, and finally send it; this could be 1 to 4 tasks

3. Carl likely has several tasks here to build layouts, add interactivity, and receive/send data to a backend server

Be mindful that people may not be able to commit to a date on the spot. If that’s the case, ask when they’re able to and follow up with them if necessary.

TLDR: Capture action items with a format that makes it clear who will do what, and ideally by when.