5 Email Templates For Following Up On Action Items

Have you ever walked away from a meeting with a sneaking suspicion that nothing discussed in the meeting will get accomplished? Were you right?

Early on in my career, I had too many meetings where followup items just didn’t get done. It wasn’t because the people were incompetent or didn’t care… normally, it was because they were swamped with stuff and the action item fell off their radar.

Being attuned to and empathizing with people’s busy schedule is one of the easiest ways to disarm a potentially awkward conversation (nobody likes feeling like they have done a bad job). Whenever I talk with someone about missing an action item, one of the key things I try to keep in mind is, “The person has not done anything wrong, the action item has just not been accomplished yet.”

There are really two follow-up emails in play after any meeting. The first goes out to everyone within a day, and its job is to make sure nobody can honestly say they didn’t know what they owned. The second only gets sent when something is already late, and that one takes more care.

Below you’ll find both: the recap template, then five ways to chase a late item without seeming like a jerk.

The follow-up email to send after every meeting

Most missed action items start with two people leaving the same meeting with different memories of who agreed to what. A recap email kills that ambiguity while everyone’s memory is still fresh, and it gives you something to point at later that isn’t your word against theirs.

Keep it skimmable. Decisions first, then owners and dates. Anyone who was in the room should be able to find their own name in about three seconds.

Subject: Recap + action items — Project X status, Tues 21 Jan

Team,

Quick recap of this morning’s Project X status meeting, plus the four items we agreed on.

What we decided

• Launch moves to 14 March
• The legacy import is out of scope for v1

Who owns what

• Bob — rewrite the migration doc. Due Fri 24 Jan.
• Jennifer — get finance sign-off on the revised budget. Due Wed 29 Jan.
• Tina — confirm the QA window with the services team. Due Fri 24 Jan.
• Me — circulate the updated launch plan once Bob’s doc lands.

If I’ve written down the wrong owner or date for anything, reply and I’ll correct it before end of day.

Thanks,

-Brenda

Two details in there are doing most of the work. Every item names one person rather than a team, because an action item owned by “marketing” is owned by nobody. And the closing line invites corrections, which turns silence into agreement. If Jennifer doesn’t reply, she has accepted the date, and you both know it.

When to send it

Same day if you can, next morning at the latest. After about 48 hours the recap stops reading as a summary and starts reading as an audit, and people get defensive about dates they’ve already blown past.

Five templates for chasing a late action item

These are the harder emails. The recap was administrative; this one carries a bit of an accusation in it whether you mean it to or not, so the framing matters.

Roughly, these escalate. Start at the top and work down only as far as you need to.

1. The Target Date Update

Use this format if the end date is not critical or blocking anything.

Subject: Quick check on your Project X action item

Hey Bob,
Just wanted to check in on the action items that you took on last week during the Project X status update. In the meeting you had targeted trying to complete it by yesterday. Do you have a new time-frame you want to target for completion?

Thanks,

-Brenda

Notice this doesn’t ask why it’s late. It asks for a new date. You’ll usually get the reason anyway, offered voluntarily, which is a much better conversation than one where you demanded it.

2. The Reassign

If you suspect that someone has over-committed, this approach gives them a chance to get the action item off their plate. Try to send this before the action item is due if you suspect that person is swamped.

Subject: Want me to move the TPS report item off your plate?

Jennifer,
Based on all the changes I am hearing with Project Z, I am assuming you are swamped trying to get the team re-aligned and focused on that effort. Let me know if you want me to assign someone else to take over your action item for updating the TPS reports (we are trying to get it completed by end of week for the finance team).

I can go ahead and re-assign it to Tina since she has bandwidth to get it knocked out by Thursday afternoon. Can you let me know by this afternoon if you want to keep the action item.? Give me a call at my desk if you’d like to chat about it (404.555.0149).

Thanks,
-Brett

This one works because it offers a way out that isn’t failure. Someone who is drowning will take it gratefully, and someone who has it handled will tell you so and often get it done that afternoon just to prove the point.

3. The Priority Ask

If something is a high priority to you, but you suspect that the person with the action item is not clear on the overall priority.

Subject: Fiscal Strategy App requirements — timing question

Carl,
I wanted to touch base on your action item from last Wednesday’s sprint planning meeting, the Fiscal Strategy App requirements.

I don’t think I did a good job in the meeting of explaining why the timing on this one matters: the vendor review is booked for the 8th, and without the requirements doc we’ll have to push that a full month. If that’s landing on top of higher-priority work you’ve been given elsewhere, tell me and I’ll take it up with Raj rather than leave you stuck between us.

Where does it sit for you right now?

Regards,
-JP

Take the blame for the unclear priority even if it wasn’t really your fault. It costs you nothing and it removes any reason for Carl to get defensive instead of answering the question.

4. The Road-Block Clearer

Most large organizations have excessive bureaucracy that can slow down people from getting anything accomplished. Use this approach if you suspect that the action item assignee is mired down due to other people around them.

Subject: Anything blocking the MDM item I can clear?

Jeff,
Can you give me a heads up and let me know if you need me to tackle any roadblocks that could be preventing you from completing the MDM action item you own from last month’s deployment meetings? I know that the QA services team can be slow to get moving, if you need me to talk with their director about their priorities, let me know.

Call me on my cell (404-555-1234) this afternoon between 2-4 to touch base on what you need to knock this task out.

Thanks,
-Brett

5. The End Around

Send this email to the Project Manager or Team Lead (of the assignee) if you are concerned that their manager does not understand the priority of the action item. Good managers should have a sense of the priority of action items assigned to their team members.

Subject: Rick’s bandwidth this week

Raj,
Can you confirm how much is on Rick’s plate right now? He had an action item from the production meeting last week to get the new layouts completed by today. I am assuming that he his heads down right now, so I didn’t want to pester him for a status update.

Do you have a sense of whether he will be getting it knocked out today?

Thanks,
Bryan

Save this one. Going around somebody costs you goodwill you may not get back, so it should be the fourth or fifth thing you try, not the first. And it’s a question about workload, not a complaint about Rick.

Subject lines that get opened

The pattern that works: name the specific item, and make it obvious you want information rather than an explanation.

• “Quick check on the migration doc”
• “New date for the QA window?”
• “Anything blocking the vendor review?”
• “Want me to reassign the TPS report?”

The pattern that doesn’t: “Following up,” “Checking in,” “Status?” Those read as pressure without telling the person what you actually need, so they get read last and answered never.

When follow-up emails stop working

All five of these templates are treating a symptom. If you’re sending them every week, the commitments made in your meetings have nowhere to live except your memory and a notes doc nobody reopens.

The tell is a recurring meeting where the same item comes up three weeks running and nobody notices it’s the third time. Better wording won’t fix that one. Surface the open items at the top of the next occurrence, and the follow-up happens during the meeting itself.

For the mechanics of that, see how to actually carry action items forward across recurring meetings and how the fields worth tracking change by meeting type: sales 1:1s, status meetings, and standups all need something a little different. If you’re weighing tools, what action item tracking software should actually do covers automated reminders and items that carry forward until they’re closed.

Frequently asked questions

How long should I wait before following up on an action item?

If it has a due date, the day after. If it doesn’t have a due date, then what came out of the meeting was a topic rather than a commitment, and your follow-up email should be asking for a date before it asks for a status.

Should I copy the person’s manager?

Not on the first email. Copying a manager turns a question into a report, and people remember it. Try the direct ask, then the roadblock offer, then the reassign, and only escalate if the item is genuinely blocking other work.

What if the same person misses action items repeatedly?

Then stop handling it over email. A pattern across several meetings is a workload or priority conversation to have live, ideally in a 1:1, and it’s worth going in with the specific items and dates rather than a general impression that they’re behind.

How do I follow up without sounding passive-aggressive?

Ask for one specific thing, give them a way to say no, and don’t reference how many times you’ve asked. Most of the sting in a follow-up email comes from the sentence establishing that this is the second or third one.

What should a follow-up email after a meeting say?

Decisions, then action items with one named owner and a date each, then an invitation to correct anything you got wrong. Skip the narrative summary of the discussion, since nobody reads it and it buries the part people need.

Do you have any specific templates you use to keep people on top of their action items?

Or skip the manual follow-up altogether. Try using Less Meeting’s action items completely free for 14 days!