Draft a Meeting Agenda and Summarize Notes with Perplexity

Open Perplexity and start a new thread

Go to perplexity.com in a browser, or open the Perplexity app on your phone, and sign in if you're asked. The page opens to a large text box in the middle of the screen with the placeholder "Ask anything…" and a small Focus selector (a dropdown showing modes like Internet, Academic, Writing, or Social). Click inside the text box so your cursor blinks there. If you've used Perplexity before, you'll see your past threads on the left or under a Home tab — look for a New Thread or + New button so this conversation stays clean and easy to find later. If you can't see those, look for a pencil icon instead. A new, empty thread means you're ready to type your first request, and nothing you've written before will mix into this one.

You'll know it worked when you see a fresh empty text box, a visible Focus dropdown, and Perplexity starts streaming an answer below your question.

Pick the Writing focus for the agenda

Look for the Focus dropdown — it's usually just above or below the text box. Open it and choose Writing. (On the phone it may be inside the small + or Tools menu near the text box.) "Focus" simply means which mode Perplexity uses — Internet searches the live web, Writing is built for drafting original text without web lookups, which is what you want for a clean, original agenda. A small label or icon appears next to your question confirming Writing mode is on. Perplexity will now skip web searching and write directly, which keeps the agenda tight and avoids random links.

You'll know it worked when the mode label next to your text says Writing, and the answer it produces has no source links at the bottom.

Ask for the timed agenda

In the same text box, send a clear, specific request. The more detail you give, the closer the result will be to what you actually need. Tell Perplexity: the meeting length, who's invited (role, not name), the goal of the meeting, and any topics you already know must be covered. Press Enter or tap the send arrow. A short intro line appears, then a numbered or time-blocked agenda. If the agenda is missing something or has too much, don't rewrite the whole thing — just type a follow-up like "Add a 5-minute wrap-up at the end" or "Make the agenda 45 minutes, not 30." Perplexity redrafts using your thread as context, so each tweak gets faster.

You'll know it worked when you see a numbered list with time markers (e.g., 0:00–5:00), clear topic titles, and a closing block for next steps.

Refine the agenda in one short follow-up

Read the agenda out loud in your head and ask yourself: would I actually run this meeting from this page? If something's off — wrong length, missing topic, too formal — reply in plain English in the same thread. Perplexity keeps the full conversation as context, so it understands "shorten the design review from 15 to 10 minutes" without you re-explaining anything. After the change, copy the final agenda into your calendar invite, your team's chat, or a shared doc. If your tool has a Copy button under the answer, use it; if not, highlight the text and copy manually. This is the version you actually send to people.

You'll know it worked when the new version reflects every change you asked for, and you can paste it straight into an email or calendar invite without rewriting.

After the meeting, paste your messy notes into a new thread

Open Perplexity again, click + New Thread (or the pencil icon) so your notes get a clean workspace — don't keep them in the old agenda thread, or the context will confuse the summary. Switch the Focus back to Internet (or just leave it on the default). Paste your notes as-is: typos, half-sentences, bullet fragments, timestamps, all of it. Add one short instruction line at the top or bottom telling Perplexity exactly what shape you want. Press Enter. Within seconds you get a structured summary you can actually send around. If a section feels wrong, ask a tiny follow-up: "Add owners next to each action item" or "Make the open questions a numbered list."

Summarize these meeting notes into three short sections:
1) Key decisions made
2) Action items (with owner if mentioned, otherwise write "TBD")
3) Open questions / things we didn't resolve

Keep it under 200 words. Plain English. No filler.

[paste your raw notes here]

You'll know it worked when the answer has three clearly labeled sections, action items are scannable in one glance, and nothing important from your notes has been quietly dropped.

Sanity-check and share the summary

AI is fast, but it can miss nuance. Skim the summary once and ask: does this match what I actually remember from the room? If an action item is missing an owner, if a decision sounds stronger than it really was, or if something funny-but-important was dropped, fix it in the chat first — Perplexity will redraft the whole summary — or just edit the final text yourself before you send it. Then share it: paste it into your team chat, your meeting notes app, or email reply-all. The whole job, from raw notes to sent summary, usually takes two to three minutes.

You'll know it worked when a teammate can read the summary on their phone in 30 seconds and know exactly what was decided and what they owe next.