Guide · Running projects
Write every action in your notes on its own line, starting with "Action:", then the owner, the task and a due date, separated by a vertical bar.
After the meeting, copy only those lines into one Tasks sheet. No owner means Unassigned; no date means the meeting date plus a default, such as seven days. The converter below does it for you.
Action: Owner | Task | Due date (YYYY-MM-DD). For example: Action: Ana | Send revised fee letter | 2026-11-06. TODO: and Acción: count too.
Whoever takes notes writes each action on its own line as it is agreed, not from memory afterwards.
Paste the whole notes into the converter, or into a form that feeds the Tasks sheet. Only action lines are kept; everything else is ignored.
No owner means Unassigned. No date means the meeting date plus your default number of days. Unassigned tasks get an owner at the next meeting.
The same day, email the client the actions they own. It doubles as a written record of what was agreed.
One person updates Status. Open tasks feed the weekly client status update.
Free tool
Paste meeting notes. Every line starting with Action:, TODO: or Acción: becomes a task with an owner and a due date. Copy the table into your sheet or download a CSV.
Runs in your browser. Nothing is sent, saved or uploaded. Replace the values with yours.
Actions agreed in meetings get lost in paragraphs: "we said Luis would ask for the survey" is hard to find two weeks later. A line that starts with Action: is easy for a person to scan and easy for a script or flow to pick out. The vertical bar separates owner, task and date without anyone needing a special app.
| You write | Owner | Task | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| Action: Ana | Send revised fee letter | 2026-11-06 | Ana | Send revised fee letter | 2026-11-06 |
| Action: Luis | Ask client for survey drawings | Luis | Ask client for survey drawings | Meeting date + default |
| Action: Book the site visit | Unassigned | Book the site visit | Meeting date + default |
| Discussed storage options | Ignored: not an action line | ||
Dates use the YYYY-MM-DD format so there is no confusion between US and Latin American date orders. 06/11 means June in one country and November in another; 2026-11-06 means the same thing everywhere.
A short form with two fields, the meeting date and the notes, feeds a Tasks sheet. In Google Workspace an Apps Script form-submit trigger splits the lines and adds one row per action; in Microsoft 365 a Power Automate flow does the same into an Excel table. An optional step adds an all-day reminder on the due date to the calendar of the account running it, with no guests, so no invitations go out. Reading notes straight out of Word or Google Docs files is a bigger build; a paste is enough to start.
Open tasks the client owns go into the "waiting on you" line of the weekly status email. Anything decided in the meeting, as opposed to assigned, goes into the decision log.
Whether you use the converter by hand or automate it, write these down once so the rules do not drift:
A one-hour client meeting produces a page of notes and four action lines. Two belong to the firm, one to the client and one has no owner. After the paste, the Tasks sheet has four new rows. The Unassigned one is raised at the start of the next meeting. The client's task appears in that Friday's status email under "waiting on you", with its due date, and the firm's two tasks show up in the weekly review until someone marks them done. Nobody had to reread the notes to find any of it.
Share the format with everyone who takes notes. The recap goes to the client; the columns start your Tasks sheet.
Download the templates as a plain text file, no signup needed.
When: Pin this at the top of your meeting notes template
Action: Owner | Task | Due date (YYYY-MM-DD) Examples: Action: Ana | Send revised fee letter | 2026-11-06 Action: Luis | Ask client for survey drawings Action: Book the site visit No owner = Unassigned. No date = meeting date + 7 days.
When: Same day as the meeting, for actions the client owns
Subject: [Project name]: actions from [meeting date]
Hi [First name], Thank you for today. The actions we agreed: [paste the action lines] If I have missed or misread anything, reply and I will correct it. Best, [Your name]
When: Paste as the first row of a new sheet
Owner Task Due Status Meeting Project
No. A fixed line format and one shared sheet are enough for a small firm. Google Sheets or Excel for the web works, and the converter above runs in a browser.
It can, but it guesses owners and dates when they are not written down. A fixed line format removes the guessing. If you do use AI, check every owner and date before the tasks go out.
Optional. If you add reminders, put them on the calendar of the account running the system, with no guests, so nobody receives an invitation they did not expect.
Paste them into the converter the same way. Reading notes straight out of documents automatically is a bigger build; a form or a paste is enough to start.
Archon & Partners