What each part of the prompt does
- Goal as an outcome
- Step 1 converts a vague aim like "sync on pricing" into a decision or a deliverable. If none exists, Gemini says the meeting could be an email, which is often the most useful answer an agenda tool can give.
- Time boxes that add up
- Requiring boxes that sum to the booked length minus a five-minute buffer catches the familiar agenda with ninety minutes of items squeezed into a thirty-minute slot, before anyone joins the call.
- Decide, discuss, inform
- Tagging every item by type tells attendees what is expected of them. Placing decide items early means hard choices get made while people are still focused, not in the rushed final minutes.
- A Parked list
- Requested topics that do not serve the goal are kept, with a reason, instead of silently dropped. People see their request was considered, and the list seeds the next meeting.
Variations to try
Same idea, one thing changed.
Weekly team meeting Build an agenda for the meeting below that ends with the outcome we need, not just a conversation. Inputs: - Meeting goal (what must be true when it ends): [GOAL] - Date and length: [DATE], [LENGTH] - Attendees and their roles: [ATTENDEES] - Background or documents people should read first: [BACKGROUND] - Topics people have asked to add: [REQUESTED TOPICS] - Open items carried over from last week: [LAST WEEK] Steps: 1. Rewrite the goal as one decision or one output, for example "choose a vendor" or "agree the Q3 targets". If the goal is only to share information, say so and suggest an email instead. 2. List only the items that move the meeting toward that outcome. Move every other requested topic to a section called Parked, with a one-line reason. 3. Give each item a type (decide, discuss or inform), an owner who leads it and a time box. The time boxes must add up to the length minus five minutes of buffer. 4. Put decide items before inform items, so the hardest part gets the freshest attention. 5. For each decide item, write the question to be answered in one sentence and the options already on the table. 6. List what each attendee should read or prepare, and who could skip the meeting and read the notes instead. 7. Open with a five-minute review of last week's open items: close the ones that are done and give the rest a new date. Format: - A title line with the goal, the date and the length. - The agenda as a table: Time, Item, Type, Owner, Question or output. - Pre-reads, Parked and Optional attendees as short bullet lists. - A three-line description for the calendar invite. Quality check: Confirm the time boxes add up and every decide item ends in a question that can be answered yes, no or with a choice.
Half-day workshop Build an agenda for the meeting below that ends with the outcome we need, not just a conversation. Inputs: - Meeting goal (what must be true when it ends): [GOAL] - Date and length: [DATE], [LENGTH] - Attendees and their roles: [ATTENDEES] - Background or documents people should read first: [BACKGROUND] - Topics people have asked to add: [REQUESTED TOPICS] Steps: 1. Rewrite the goal as one decision or one output, for example "choose a vendor" or "agree the Q3 targets". If the goal is only to share information, say so and suggest an email instead. 2. List only the items that move the meeting toward that outcome. Move every other requested topic to a section called Parked, with a one-line reason. 3. Give each item a type (decide, discuss or inform), an owner who leads it and a time box. The time boxes must add up to the length, with a ten-minute break at least every 75 minutes and five minutes of buffer in each block. 4. Put decide items before inform items, so the hardest part gets the freshest attention. 5. For each decide item, write the question to be answered in one sentence and the options already on the table. 6. List what each attendee should read or prepare, and who could skip the meeting and read the notes instead. Format: - A title line with the goal, the date and the length. - The agenda as a table: Time, Item, Type, Owner, Question or output. - Pre-reads, Parked and Optional attendees as short bullet lists. - A three-line description for the calendar invite. - A materials list: what the room, the facilitator and each attendee need. Quality check: Confirm the time boxes add up and every decide item ends in a question that can be answered yes, no or with a choice.
If the result isn't right
- Write [GOAL] as a finished sentence such as "we leave with a signed-off launch date"; the sharper that line, the shorter the agenda Gemini produces.
- Put the Optional attendees list into the invite with "notes will follow" and you hand back an hour to people who only needed the outcome.
- After the meeting, run your notes through a decision log prompt so the Question column becomes the record of what was actually answered.