If you’re tired of chasing people about action items after meetings, you’re not alone. Meetings are only as useful as what happens next, but most of us forget, lose track, or just get overwhelmed by next steps. This guide is for anyone who uses Fellow and wants to make sure follow-up tasks don’t die in a notes doc somewhere. We’ll walk through real ways to automate your post-meeting follow-up—without turning your workflow into a Rube Goldberg machine.
Why automate follow-up tasks in the first place?
Let’s be honest: remembering to do the next thing after a meeting is probably the hardest part. Automating follow-ups helps you:
- Actually get stuff done (instead of just talking about it)
- Stop nagging people or being nagged yourself
- Save time copying action items into task lists
- Avoid awkward “didn’t we agree on this?” moments
But don’t get swept up thinking automation is magic. It’ll help, but you’ll still need to tweak your process and check that things are working. That’s why we’ll focus on what’s worth automating—and what’s not.
Step 1: Set up meeting templates that capture action items
Automation works best when your meeting notes aren’t chaos. Fellow uses templates to keep meetings consistent—and to make action items easy to spot and automate.
How to do it:
- In Fellow, go to your workspace and find “Templates” in the sidebar.
- Either edit an existing template or create a new one.
- Add a dedicated “Action Items” section. Don’t just bury tasks in random notes.
- Use bullet points or checklists for each action item.
Pro tip:
If you run similar meetings (1:1s, team standups), set up templates for each. That way, your action items are always in the same place, making automation way easier.
What to skip:
Don’t overcomplicate your templates with every possible section. You want people to actually use them, not get lost.
Step 2: Assign tasks during the meeting
Automation can’t read minds. If action items aren’t clearly assigned, no tool can magically know who’s supposed to do what.
How to do it:
- When you add an action item in Fellow, assign it to a specific person (including yourself).
- Set a due date if you can. If you don’t, the action just floats around, which helps no one.
- If you’re running the meeting, pause for 30 seconds at the end to review and confirm all assignments.
Pitfalls:
- Don’t rely on “someone will do it.” Automation can’t fix unclear ownership.
- If you assign tasks after the meeting, they’ll get missed. Do it live.
Step 3: Use Fellow’s built-in task summaries and reminders
Fellow has a few built-in features for follow-up. These aren’t fully automated in the “robot does everything” sense, but they take most of the grunt work out of remembering and chasing people.
What Fellow can do natively:
- Automatic task rollup: All your action items from different meetings show up in your “My Action Items” view.
- Daily or weekly digests: Fellow can email you (and your team) a summary of outstanding tasks.
- In-app reminders: Fellow nudges you about overdue tasks when you open the app.
How to set this up:
- Check your notification settings in Fellow. Make sure you’re getting emailed digests if that helps you.
- Encourage your team to check their “My Action Items” regularly.
- You can also add manual reminders to specific tasks if you want more nudging.
Real talk:
These features are good for most use cases. If you just want to remember what you promised to do, “My Action Items” is usually enough. But if you need tasks to show up in other tools, keep reading.
Step 4: Sync action items to other tools (Asana, Todoist, Jira, etc.)
Most of us don’t live in one app. If you track work in Asana, Todoist, Jira, or another tool, you’ll want your Fellow tasks to show up there automatically.
What works (and what doesn’t):
- Direct integrations: Fellow offers native integrations with tools like Asana, Jira, and Trello for paid plans. These can automatically push assigned action items to those platforms.
- Zapier/Make (Integromat): For other tools (like Todoist, ClickUp, or Notion), you can use automation platforms to connect Fellow to almost anything. But these require a bit of setup and, frankly, can break when APIs change.
How to set up a native integration:
- Go to “Workspace Settings” in Fellow.
- Select “Integrations” and pick the tool you want to connect.
- Authenticate your account and follow the prompts.
- Choose whether to sync all action items or just those from certain meetings.
- Test it: Assign yourself a task in a meeting and check if it appears in your other app.
Setting up with Zapier or Make:
- You’ll need a Zapier or Make account.
- Set up a trigger: “New Action Item Assigned in Fellow.”
- Choose an action: “Create Task” in your preferred app.
- Map fields (title, due date, assignee).
- Test it to make sure it’s not duplicating or missing tasks.
Stuff to watch out for:
- Integrations sometimes drop authentication—keep an eye out for silent disconnects.
- If you’re syncing to a personal task list (like Todoist), make sure tasks don’t pile up from team meetings you don’t care about.
- Don’t try to sync everything. Only push high-value tasks, or you’ll drown in clutter.
Step 5: Automate post-meeting summaries and follow-up emails
Some teams like to send a summary email after every meeting, listing action items and owners. Fellow can automate some of this—but it’s not totally hands-off.
Options:
- Automatic recap emails: Fellow can send out meeting notes (including action items) right after each meeting. You can choose who gets these—attendees, yourself, or even external folks.
- Manual review: Before the email goes out, you can review and tidy up the notes. This isn’t “automation” in the strictest sense, but it helps catch errors before people get confused.
How to turn on recap emails:
- In your meeting series in Fellow, hit the gear/settings icon.
- Find “Notifications” or “Recap Emails.”
- Set it to send automatically to all attendees after each meeting.
- (Optional) Choose to send the notes to yourself for a last-minute check before they go out.
What doesn’t work:
- Don’t rely on recap emails alone. People ignore emails, especially if they get too many. Use them as a backup, not your only system.
Step 6: Review, clean up, and iterate
Automation isn’t set-and-forget. Every few weeks, check if your system is working:
- Are action items getting done, or are they falling through the cracks?
- Are people ignoring automated reminders?
- Is your integration breaking or duplicating tasks?
If something’s not working, simplify. Sometimes less automation is better—especially if your team starts ignoring the noise.
What not to bother automating
Let’s get real: not everything is worth automating. Here’s what you can safely skip:
- Pre-meeting prep: Automation can’t make people actually read the agenda.
- Creative or nuanced follow-ups: “Let’s brainstorm options” doesn’t break down into a checklist.
- Human accountability: No tool will have that awkward “Hey, you missed your deadline” chat for you.
Focus on automating the boring, repetitive stuff—like copying tasks and sending reminders.
Wrapping up: Keep it simple, tweak as you go
Automating follow-up tasks in Fellow is about making it easier for you and your team to actually get stuff done—not about showing off how many tools you can connect. Start with the basics: clear templates, assigning tasks in the meeting, and using Fellow’s built-in reminders. Only set up fancy integrations if you really need them.
If something isn’t working, don’t be afraid to cut it. The best automation is the one you barely notice, because things just get done. Start simple, iterate, and spend less time chasing people after your meetings.