What to read in the sixty seconds before a meeting

Most meeting prep fails in one of two ways. Either there isn't any, and you spend the first five minutes reconstructing what you discussed last time, or there's too much, and the one thing that mattered is buried on page three.

The fix isn't more preparation. It's a smaller brief: three lines you can read in the time it takes to walk down a hallway.

Line one: where you left off

Write down the last real conversation in a single sentence. Not the meeting title — the substance. "She was hiring a VP of Finance and wanted my read on two candidates" tells you more than "Q3 sync" ever will.

This line does two jobs. It lets you open where the last meeting ended, which shows you were listening. And it surfaces what may have changed since: a hire made, a reorg finished, a decision taken without you.

Line two: what's open between you

List every open promise, in both directions: what you said you'd do, what they said they'd do, and anything that's late.

People forgive a late memo. They don't forgive pretending it isn't late.

If you owe something overdue, the brief is your chance to raise it before they do. Lead with it. If they owe you something, you now know whether to ask or let it ride.

Line three: one thing to ask

End with one question that moves things forward, ideally one that follows up on line one. "Did the search close?" beats "How are things?" because it proves the last conversation mattered to you.

One question, not five. The point is to start well, not to run the meeting from a script.

Make it a habit

A brief only helps if it exists before you walk in. Write it when the meeting lands on your calendar, or block two minutes before each one. Keep the same three lines every time, so reading it becomes automatic.

Sixty seconds is enough. The goal isn't to know everything about the person across the table. It's to make sure they never have to remind you of the thing you already promised.