# Prepare for a meeting in ten useful minutes

Original 5HO practice material. Fictional example. Reviewed 5 October 2026.

## Useful result

You'll finish with a one-page meeting prep note centred on the decision, evidence and likely questions.

Ten useful minutes before a meeting can save twenty minutes of finding the point during it. Build an agenda around a decision, not a list of things everyone already knows.

## Set up

Set a ten-minute timer. Use chat and the fictional meeting brief. No calendar access is needed for this preparation task.

## Practice input

Meeting: 20 minutes with Jo and Lee. Decision: run one training session or two. Known: 18 attendees; room holds 12; second-room price unknown; invitations not sent.

## Do the task

1. Minutes 0–3: state the decision and list the missing facts.
2. Minutes 3–7: draft a short agenda with time boxes and questions.
3. Minutes 7–10: check that the agenda leaves time for a decision and follow-up owner.

## Prompt

Prepare a 20-minute agenda for this meeting. Include a decision question, the known capacity constraint, unknown cost and a final action-record step. Do not decide for the attendees.

## Refine

Cut background discussion to three minutes. Make the room-capacity question visible before the options are discussed.

## Expected checks

One room cannot hold all 18 people at once under the stated capacity. The agenda should explore alternatives without inventing a second-room quote. Stop if the meeting’s actual decision is still unclear.

## Save

Save the agenda and a blank decision line. Fill in the outcome after the meeting, not before.

## Sources

- Writing clear prompts: https://help.openai.com/en/articles/10032626-prompt-engineering-best-practices-for-chatgpt