# The Four-Part Prompt (Chapter 10)

**Use when:** a meeting ended minutes ago with spoken commitments and no written record of them.

One prompt converts any meeting record into decisions, attributed actions, open questions, and non-commitments. No summary required. The record stays in safe tools, per Chapter 3.

```
From this meeting record: [PASTE TRANSCRIPT OR YOUR NOTES]

List four things, nothing else:
1. Decisions: what was actually decided, in plain words, with who decided
   it if that was said.
2. Actions: every commitment, each with a named owner, a deadline, and a
   home (the tracker, the calendar, the shared file). If a deadline was
   not said, write unknown. Never invent a deadline.
3. Questions: what stayed open, and who owns the answer.
4. Ghosts: things that sounded like commitments but no one owns. A "we
   should probably" is a decision needed, not a task.

Do not summarize the meeting. Do not add items that were not said.
```

## The rule inside the rule

A "we should probably" becomes a decision needed, not a task. Attribution is the discipline: every action gets a name, a deadline, and a home. An action without a home will be re-decided next week; an action without a name will be re-committed by everyone and done by no one.

## Before the table goes anywhere

- [ ] Every action item has a name, a date, and a home. Fix what is missing.
- [ ] Nothing sends without your eyes, ever.
- [ ] If the tracker is shared, the Chapter 15 habits apply before you trust it.

Verify: a teammate could run your notes through the same prompt and get the same actions. The meeting gets a record it never had, or you learn which of your meetings actually commit.