Sentences for meetings

Use these as written. They are meant to be said, not adapted into your own words in the moment — the whole value of a prepared sentence is that it is available when you have no spare attention to compose one.

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.

Buying yourself time

• "Can I come back to you on that before the end of the day?" For a question that deserves a real answer rather than the first one available.
• "I want to give you a proper answer. Let me look at it this afternoon and send it to you." When the person clearly wants more than a yes or no.
• "My first thought is yes, but let me check it against the schedule before I commit." When you need the time but do not want to sound resistant.
• "Give me a moment on that one." Then stop talking. A short silence in a meeting is much shorter than it feels from the inside.

Asking for it in writing

• "Could you send me that in a message so I have the exact wording?" Works for anything with details, names, dates or numbers in it.
• "I'll write up what I understood and send it to you — tell me if I have any of it wrong." Puts the work on you, which almost nobody refuses, and gets you a written record either way.
• "Can we put the specifics in the shared document rather than deciding them here?" For a discussion that is producing detail nobody is capturing.

Checking you have understood

• "Let me say that back to you. You want X by Thursday, and Y can wait. Is that right?" The most useful sentence on this page. Use it often.
• "So the part I own is the first section, and the rest sits with someone else. Correct?" Separates your piece from everyone else's before the meeting ends.
• "When you say soon, do you mean this week or this month?" Vague timing is the most common thing that goes wrong later.
• "What would done look like for this?" Asks for the finish line without implying you were not listening.

Asking for a repeat

• "Sorry, could you say the last part again?" Ordinary, forgettable, and it works. Nobody remembers this being asked.
• "The connection cut out for a second — could you repeat that?" For calls. True often enough, and it ends the moment instantly.
• "Can you spell that?" For names and systems. Everyone accepts this without thinking about it.

When you have lost the thread entirely

For when twenty minutes have gone somewhere and you are no longer sure what is being discussed. None of these admits to anything, and all of them are things people say for ordinary reasons.

• "Can we take stock for a second — where have we landed so far?" Sounds like leadership. Frequently is.
• "I want to make sure I am tracking the same version as everyone else. Are we still on the second point?" Gets you a location without asking for a summary.
• "Before we move on — can someone recap the decision, so it is in the notes correctly?" Asks for the whole thing back, on behalf of the record.
• "Which of these is the one you need an answer on today?" Narrows a long discussion to the part you actually have to hold.

Following up on something decided out loud

Verbal decisions vanish. This is not a memory problem; it is what happens when nothing is written down.

• "We agreed on Tuesday that I would do the first section and you would do the second, starting next week. Sending this so we both have it in writing." Send within a few hours. Neutral, specific, dated.
• "Just so I have this right — the decision was to go with the second option. Say if that is not where we ended up." For a decision you are fairly sure of but not certain.
• "There were a few versions of this in the conversation. Can you confirm which one we are doing?" For a meeting that never actually resolved, which is more common than it seems.

Getting an agenda in advance

• "Could you send an agenda beforehand? I prepare better with the questions in advance and the meeting goes faster." Framed as output. Almost always granted.
• "What do you need from me in this meeting, so I can bring it?" Works when there is no agenda culture at all and you cannot create one alone.
• "Can the document go round the day before rather than being presented? I read faster than I listen and we get to the discussion sooner." Reasonable, specific, and states no more about you than a preference for reading.

If it goes badly

• Someone pushes for an answer now. — "You can have a rough answer now or an accurate one tomorrow. Which is more use to you?" This works, because they will almost always say tomorrow.
• Someone says "we already covered that". — "We did. I want it in the notes." Then move on immediately. Do not apologise into the gap.
• Someone answers your repeat request with visible irritation. — "Thanks." Nothing further. The irritation is information about them, and about a room that counts a clarifying question as a cost.
• You said yes to something in the room and should not have. — "I said yes to this too quickly yesterday. Looking at the week properly, I can do it by the 14th but not by the 9th." Send it the next morning, not in a week.
• Nothing you ask for gets written down, ever. — Then stop asking in the meeting and start sending the summary yourself afterwards. Your version becomes the record by default, because it is the only one.

What the meeting itself should be doing

None of the above should be necessary as often as it is. A meeting that works supplies an agenda before, a named person taking notes, decisions written down with owners and dates, and a document circulated in advance rather than presented aloud. That is not an accommodation for anyone. It is the difference between a meeting and a conversation with a room booking.

If you have any influence over how meetings run — and people often have more than they assume — the record is the highest-value thing to change. Ask for one named note-taker, rotated. Everything on this page gets easier once decisions exist somewhere other than in the memory of whoever was paying attention.