Turn Messy Notes Into a Structured Document

What it does

You have a page of raw notes — meeting scribbles, brainstorm output, voice memo transcripts, or a mix of bullet points and half-sentences. This prompt turns that chaos into a structured document with clear sections, complete sentences, and nothing important lost. It preserves your meaning while making it readable by someone who wasn’t in the room.

The Prompt

Turn these raw notes into a structured document.

Notes:
[PASTE YOUR RAW NOTES HERE — don't clean them up, paste them as-is]

Context: [WHERE THESE CAME FROM — meeting, brainstorm, research session, interview, etc.]

Intended reader: [WHO WILL READ THE FINAL DOCUMENT — team members, your future self, a client, etc.]

Output format: [MEMO / MEETING SUMMARY / BRIEF / ACTION PLAN / OTHER]

Please follow these rules:

1. PRESERVE EVERYTHING: Every piece of information in my notes must appear in the output. Do not decide something is unimportant and drop it. If something seems like a tangent, put it in a "Parking Lot" or "Other Notes" section rather than cutting it.

2. FIND THE STRUCTURE: Group related points together under clear headings. Don't just reformat my bullets — reorganize them by topic, decision, or theme. If a natural structure isn't obvious, use:
   - Decisions made
   - Open questions
   - Action items (with owners if mentioned)
   - Key discussion points
   - Parking lot

3. COMPLETE THE THOUGHTS: Where my notes are fragmentary ("API — maybe rate limit?"), expand into complete sentences that preserve the original meaning ("Consider adding rate limiting to the API"). Flag anything where my intent is genuinely ambiguous with [UNCLEAR: ...].

4. ACTION ITEMS: Pull every action item into a single list at the end, even if they appeared mid-notes. Format: "[ ] Action — Owner (if mentioned) — Deadline (if mentioned)."

5. NO INVENTION: Do not add information, opinions, or context that isn't in the notes. If a section seems thin, leave it thin — don't pad it.

Usage Notes

• Pasting notes “as-is” works better than cleaning them up first. The AI handles abbreviations, fragments, and typos well, and your cleanup might accidentally remove something.
• The “PRESERVE EVERYTHING” rule is critical. Without it, the AI will silently drop points it considers minor — which are often the points you most need to remember.
• For meeting notes specifically, add: “Note who said what if attributions appear in my notes. Decisions should clearly state who made them.”
• For brainstorm sessions, add: “Don’t evaluate ideas — just organize them. Group by theme, not by quality.”
• If the notes are very long (2000+ words), specify the output length: “The final document should be about half the length of the notes.” Otherwise you’ll get a document that’s longer than the source material.
• This pairs well with the Stakeholder Update prompt — run notes through this prompt first, then feed the structured output into the stakeholder update prompt.