Sentences for meetings
Pick the moment you are in. Get the line that fits it, ready to say.
The short version
- Meetings ask for answers at conversational speed. Some good answers do not arrive at that speed, and buying a few hours costs nothing.
- None of these sentences requires you to explain anything about yourself. That is the point of them.
- Say them in a level voice, without an apology attached. Most of these fail only when they arrive wrapped in sorry, I know this is annoying, but.
Pick the moment you are in from the list below. The tool hands back the sentence, or the few sentences, that fit it, plus a one-line note on how to deliver it. Use them as written. The whole value of a prepared sentence is that it is available when you have no spare attention to compose one.
Before you begin
You will pick one moment, then see the lines for it. You can go back and pick another as many times as you like. Nothing you do here is saved.
Pick your moment
Pick the moment you are in
The moment you picked
Your lines
Copy it somewhere you can glance at it
Select the text below and copy it into whatever you already use. This page keeps nothing.
The one worth memorising
"Let me say that back to you. You want X by Thursday, and Y can wait. Is that right?" It is the most useful sentence in the whole set. Said out loud, it separates your piece from everyone else's and puts the version you will act on into the room before the meeting ends. Use it often, in any moment, whether the tool handed it to you or not.
Worth knowing. These are craft, not research. They are sentences that people have found work, collected and tested in ordinary workplaces. There is no study behind any individual line, and none is claimed. Take the ones that fit how you talk and discard the rest. A meeting that only exists out loud, with no agenda before and no record after, is an organisational problem, not a personal one, where you have any influence over how meetings run, one named note-taker, rotated, makes everything on this page easier.
Nothing here is saved or sent anywhere. What you type exists only while this page is open.
Written for Thought Club as general guidance, not medical advice. Free to read, print, and share.