One-on-One Meeting Template: 30-Minute Agenda and Running Doc

A good one-on-one meeting template has two parts: a fixed 30-minute agenda the report fills first, and one running doc per person where open action items stay at the top until they are done. Copy both below.

For what to ask inside the format, use the companion list of one-on-one meeting questions.

The 30-minute one-on-one agenda template

Use the report-led version by default. It follows the same blocks as the agenda in the questions post, but moves two minutes from the report's topics to last week's open actions. Rogelberg found that the biggest predictor of a 1:1's value is the direct report's active participation, and GitLab's handbook treats it as a warning sign if the manager adds more than half of the agenda items.

Report-led version

ONE-ON-ONE: [Report] and [Manager] · [Date] · 30 minutes
Report adds topics by the day before. Manager adds one or two at most.

0:00  Check-in (3 min)
      How was your week, from 1 to 10?

0:03  Open actions from last time (2 min)
      [ ] [Action] · [owner] · due [date]: done / open / dropped

0:05  Your topics (10 min)
      1.
      2.
      3.

0:15  Priorities and blockers (7 min)
      Top three priorities until we next meet:
      What's slowing you down that I could remove?

0:22  Manager's topic or rotating question (5 min)
      Feedback, growth, well-being or remote work: one question

0:27  Recap (3 min)
      New actions (owner, due date):
      [ ]
      Carry to next time:

Manager-led version

Use this for the first few weeks with a new report, or with someone who doesn't add topics yet. The last line hands the agenda back.

ONE-ON-ONE (manager-led): [Report] and [Manager] · [Date] · 30 minutes

0:00  Check-in (3 min)
0:03  Open actions from last time (2 min)
0:05  Context from me (5 min): team news, decisions, changes
0:10  Recognition (3 min): one specific piece of recent work
0:13  Priorities (7 min): do your top three match mine?
0:20  Your questions and topics (8 min)
0:28  Recap (2 min): actions, owners, dates
      Next time, could you add the first topic?

The running one-on-one doc template

The running doc holds every meeting, so action items carry over instead of living in last week's notes. GitLab recommends a Google Doc shared only between manager and report, because performance feedback should stay private, and suggests keeping it open all week so items get added as they come up.

1:1 DOC · [Report] and [Manager]
Private to the two of us. Newest meeting at the top.
Cadence: weekly, 30 minutes, [day and time]

OPEN ACTIONS (stay here until done or dropped)
[ ] [Action] · [owner] · due [date] · added [date]

PARKING LOT (add anytime during the week)
-

──────────── [DATE] ────────────
Check-in: _/10
Report's topics:
-
Manager's topics:
-
Priorities until next time:
1.
2.
3.
Notes and decisions:
-
New actions (copy to OPEN ACTIONS):
[ ]
Wins worth remembering:
-

──────────── [PREVIOUS DATE] ────────────

The "Wins worth remembering" line pays off at review time. A year of those lines is most of a brag document and a head start on a self-evaluation.

A filled-in example (hypothetical)

Priya, a product designer, and Sam, her manager, are hypothetical. This is their doc right after their Nov 24 meeting:

1:1 DOC · Priya and Sam (hypothetical)

OPEN ACTIONS
[ ] Share onboarding draft with support · Priya · due Nov 25 · added Nov 17
[ ] Book a weekly Tuesday design-review slot · Sam · due Nov 25 · added Nov 24
[ ] Draft the usability test plan · Priya · due Dec 1 · added Nov 24

PARKING LOT
- Conference budget for next year?

──────────── NOV 24 ────────────
Check-in: 6/10. Lost two days waiting for design review.
Report's topics:
- Review turnaround: proposes a fixed Tuesday slot
- Wants to run the next usability test herself
Manager's topics:
- Q1 planning starts next week
Priorities until next time:
1. Onboarding flow v2
2. Usability test plan
3. Close out the icon audit
Notes and decisions:
- Closed: Sam got a date for the API change (Dec 8)
- Agreed: Tuesday review slot from next week
- Priya runs the December usability test; Sam reviews her plan
New actions (copied to OPEN ACTIONS):
[ ] Book a weekly Tuesday design-review slot · Sam · due Nov 25 · added Nov 24
[ ] Draft the usability test plan · Priya · due Dec 1 · added Nov 24
Wins worth remembering:
- Shipped the checkout error-message rewrite on Nov 20

──────────── NOV 17 ────────────

Variants for other one-on-ones

First 1:1 with a new report

Book 45 minutes and skip status. The goal is to learn how they work and to set up the running doc together. The one-on-one meeting questions post has first-meeting questions to pick from.

FIRST 1:1: [Report] and [Manager] · 45 minutes
0:00  About you: background, what you want from this role (10 min)
0:10  How you work: hours, focus time, how to reach you (10 min)
0:20  Feedback: in the moment, in writing or saved for the 1:1? (5 min)
0:25  What worked, or didn't, with past managers (10 min)
0:35  How we'll meet: cadence, day, what goes in the doc (5 min)
0:40  Create the running doc together; add first actions (5 min)

Skip-level 1:1

A skip-level is you meeting your reports' reports without their manager present. GitLab's skip-level guidance says to hold them at least quarterly, to treat the first one like a coffee chat, never to use them to check on a manager by "going around them", and to prepare by reviewing the attendee's accomplishments.

SKIP-LEVEL: [Leader] and [Team member] · quarterly · 30 minutes
First one: treat it like a coffee chat. From the second one:
0:00  Recognition: work I've seen this quarter, prepared beforehand (5 min)
0:05  Context from me: strategy and focus areas (5 min)
0:10  Your questions (15 min)
0:25  What's going well, and what would you change? (5 min)
Not for: priorities, career plans or your manager's performance

Monthly career check-in

GitLab suggests career development discussions once a month. In that week, the priorities and rotating blocks merge into 12 minutes on growth, so the meeting still ends at 0:30.

CAREER WEEK (once a month) · 30 minutes
0:00  Check-in and open actions (5 min)
0:05  Your topics (10 min)
0:15  Growth (12 min): read "Wins worth remembering" together,
      then: which skill next? What would the next level require?
0:27  Recap (3 min)

Remote across time zones

GitLab lets each pair choose synchronous or written 1:1s, gives alternating weeks as an example, and prefers at least two live 1:1s a month. In written weeks, the same doc carries the meeting:

WRITTEN WEEK · no call
By [day]: report fills check-in, topics and priorities in the doc
Within 1 working day: manager replies in comments
Anything that needs a conversation: moved to next live 1:1
Actions: added to OPEN ACTIONS as usual

For live weeks, use the meeting planner to find a slot that doesn't always land on the same person's evening.

How to set it up in Google Docs, Notion or Confluence

• Google Docs. One doc per report, newest meeting on top. Type "@" and pick Meeting notes under Building blocks to pull the date, title and attendees from the Calendar event (Google, 2023). Share it with the report only and attach it to the recurring invite.
• Notion. Make a database per report, add the agenda as a template via "+ New template", then open the template's "..." menu, choose "Repeat" and set it weekly. Notion then creates a new entry on schedule (Notion help). Keep open actions on the parent page so they don't get buried in last week's entry.
• Confluence. Atlassian's 1-on-1 template suggests a new page for each meeting. Nest the pages under one parent per report and copy the open actions forward each time.

Mistakes that break the template

1. Status updates fill the slot. If "your topics" turns into a task list every week, the update belongs in a written weekly report or the team's standup.
2. The manager writes the agenda. If your items outnumber theirs every week, use the manager-led version's last line.
3. Actions vanish. Without the open-actions block, the same blocker comes back three weeks later.
4. Meetings slip. Rogelberg notes that more than two weeks between 1:1s usually makes feedback less timely.

Filling the topics and wins lines from shared summaries

The topics and the wins are hard to fill from memory. DoneThat rebuilds the workday from screen and app activity, without timers, and turns it into a daily summary, so the report has their week in front of them before the meeting, and the manager does too if the report shares it. DoneThat publishes this blog, so weigh this accordingly.

Sharing is opt-in: each person sets the visibility of every summary (private, team, org or public), and team dashboards show summaries and relative trends rather than hours per person. The report can open their own week first and pull topics and wins into the doc, and the history can be exported or queried later (CSV, API, MCP). Screen-based capture is a bigger ask than a shared doc, even though screenshots are processed and immediately deleted. If a doc and five minutes of notes work for your team, that's enough.

Frequently asked questions

What should a one-on-one meeting template include?

A check-in, last meeting's open actions, the report's topics, priorities and blockers, one rotating question, and a recap with owners and dates.

How long should a 1 on 1 meeting be?

Thirty minutes, weekly or every other week, is a sound default. Gallup reports that regular 15- to 30-minute conversations have more impact than 30- to 60-minute ones, and Rogelberg's research favors a weekly or every-other-week cadence.

Who should write the one-on-one agenda?

Mostly the report. In Rogelberg's research, both sides rated meetings highest when the report created the agenda. Ask them to add topics the day before, which GitLab also suggests (at least 24 hours ahead).

Should one-on-one notes be shared with anyone else?

No. Keep the running doc between manager and report. GitLab's handbook says it should not be public because performance feedback should be as private as possible.

Copy it into next week's 1:1

Paste the running doc into a new doc, share it with your report and ask them to add the first topic before you meet. For what to ask once you're in the room, go back to the one-on-one meeting questions.

Sources

• Atlassian. 1-on-1 meeting template. Confluence template guide (vendor documentation). Retrieved 4 November 2026.
• Budzyna, M. (2 August 2023). How to create meeting notes in Google Docs. Google Workspace blog. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
• Gallup (29 May 2023, updated 16 February 2026). A Great Manager's Most Important Habit. Study of nearly 15,000 employees on meaningful manager conversations. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
• GitLab. 1-1. The GitLab Handbook, last modified 30 October 2026. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
• GitLab. Skip Level Meetings. The GitLab Handbook, last modified 5 December 2025. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
• Notion. Automate work with repeating database templates. Notion Help Center (vendor documentation). Retrieved 4 November 2026.
• Rogelberg, S. G. (9 January 2024). Unlocking the Potential of 1:1 Meetings. Next Big Idea Club. The author's summary of Glad We Met: The Art and Science of 1:1 Meetings (Oxford University Press, 2024), based on a global survey of 1,200 knowledge workers and a US survey of 250 employees. Retrieved 4 November 2026.

Written by Don, DoneThat's AI coach (LinkedIn) - so this article is AI-written. Every statistic is cited next to the claim and linked in the Sources list, and vendor documentation is labeled as such. Published by DoneThat (Letss B.V., Amsterdam). More about DoneThat; corrections and questions go to support.