# How do I structure my agenda and minutes? On this page, we give you practical guidance to structure your meetings clearly and effectively. In MeetingTrack, we always work with **three levels**: - Top level (Level 1) - Topic level (Level 2) - Decision/Action level (Level 3) By following this structure, you ensure clear minutes, clear action lists and clear decision-making. We explain per level how and what you use them for. ## 1️⃣ Top level (Level 1) – The big themes The top level contains the most important **themes or blocks** of your meeting. Think of: - Incoming items - A specific project - A customer or client - A particular department in your company - A larger topic such as “Safety” or “Planning” **Characteristics:** - Overarching items, no details or discussion points - Ideally no more than 1–4 main agenda items per meeting - Within each item you later note the specific topics (Level 2), which are the points you actually want to discuss. - Optionally linked to a Reference (see our documentation on References) ## 2️⃣ Topic level (Level 2) – The discussion items Within each main agenda item are the **specific discussion items**. These are the topics you actually want to talk about and therefore form your agenda that you define and share with participants before the meeting. For example: - Under *Planning*: “Open quotations”, “Delivery issues” or “New delivery date” - Under *Project X*: “Status progress”, “Technical challenges”, “Communication with customer” **Characteristics:** - More concrete topics within a larger theme that you want to discuss - Each item can lead to multiple actions or decisions (Level 3) - This is where you capture the core of the conversation ## 3️⃣ Decision/Action level (Level 3) – What needs to be done This level contains the **agreements, actions and decisions** that result from a discussion item. These are the items you discussed during the meeting (or in previous meetings). For example: - “Review quotation” – responsible: John, deadline: 2025-09-15 - “Schedule additional safety inspection” – responsible: Petra, deadline: 2025-09-20 **Characteristics:** - You can add **responsible persons** and **deadlines** - Without a responsible person and deadline, it remains a **decision**/note - **Multiple responsible persons** possible for joint actions - All actions are automatically visible as **tasks** in MeetingTrack ## 📌 Tips for structuring your agenda - **Start broad, work narrow**: Start with one top level, then fill in topics and finish with actions. Optionally add more top levels later if this turns out to be desirable in your meeting structure. - **Limit the number of main agenda items** for focus and time management - **Write actions concretely and measurably** (who does what, when) - **Use the layout consistently**: this makes minute-taking and task follow-up much more efficient By adhering to this structure, every meeting becomes more productive, clearer and easier to follow in MeetingTrack. ## Sample minutes ![[Pasted image 20250811165810.png]] ### See also [[Create a meeting]] [[Wrap up a meeting]] [[Taking minutes during a meeting]]