You aren’t just hosting this meeting for the sake of getting together regularly. One way to keep people engaged in a recurring meeting is to clearly outline the purpose. That way people know the meeting has a clear goal, beyond just taking up time on their calendars. At the start of each meeting (regardless of how many times you’ve hosted it before), take some time to provide a brief overview and explain the meeting’s goals, key attendees, and processes. Jot those details in the Meeting overview section of the template so that everybody has that context when reviewing past minutes.

Do you feel like you walk out of each and every meeting with a lengthy to-do list? That’s normal. In fact, it’s positive, because it means you’re making some real progress during those sit-downs. In the Open action items section of this template, you can use a macro to display all open action items from across all of those meetings. Just type “/task report” and it will pull in all of those unchecked to-do’s regardless of if they’re from yesterday’s meeting or the one you hosted two months ago. Make sure that you frequently check off the action items, so everybody is in the know about what still needs to be done.

Want the secret to a productive meeting? We have one word for you: agenda. You should have a clear idea of what needs to be discussed and decided on before pulling everybody together. You should also ask attendees ahead of time if there are any items they want to cover. Use the Meeting minutes section of the template to record the date of your meeting, tag your attendees, and then list your agenda items. That will help you prioritize your topics of conversation and keep the meeting on track.

As much as you like to think that you have a mind like a steel trap, it’s easy to forget what happens in each recurring meeting. What was decided? What tasks were identified? The last column of the Meeting minutes section gives you space to record a detailed account of what took place during that meeting. You can type “/action item” to add and assign tasks, and “/decision” to record a decision that was made in that meeting. No more racking your brain for the details of what happened when.