Why I keep a shared document for every person I work with
Reading time: 4 min, last updated: May 2026
What you will find here:
- Waiting for a meeting to exchange context creates a ping-pong cycle that stretches simple questions over weeks. A shared running document where both sides write between meetings breaks this cycle because points get read, processed, and sometimes resolved before anyone sits down together.
- The structure that works: open points on top (both sides add anytime), a chronological log of decisions, actions, and notes below (newest first). The practice is well-established for manager-to-report 1:1s (Julie Zhuo, Manager Tools, Stripe). It works equally well for any recurring working relationship regardless of hierarchy.
- Adoption works peer-to-peer, one colleague at a time. Walk through the format together in the first meeting so both sides understand the document is shared, not owned. The practice tends to stick once the first meeting gets shorter or becomes unnecessary because the answer was already in the document.
You have three open questions about a project timeline. Your counterpart in another department has the answers, but it takes ten days to find a 30-minute slot. In the call, you explain the context, walk through the questions, lay out why each one matters. The other person listens carefully. "Good points. Let me look into this and get back to you."
Five days later, an answer arrives on two of the three questions. The third one got lost. You send a reminder in Teams. It disappears between twelve other messages. The next available meeting slot is in two weeks.
Three weeks for three questions. I have watched this play out in every organization I have worked in. The information lives in the wrong place and vanishes before anyone can act on it.
The underlying problem: both sides are waiting for a meeting to exchange context. The meeting becomes the bottleneck, and everything that happens between meetings (the thinking, the follow-up, the clarification) has no place to live.
How a shared running document replaces the meeting bottleneck
For every person I work with regularly, I now keep a shared document. A Google Doc, a Notion page, whatever the organization uses. Both of us can write in it at any time.
The structure is simple. At the top: open points for the next conversation. Both of us add to this section whenever something comes up, between meetings, on any day. Below that: a running log with decisions, action items, and short notes, newest entry first. The document grows downward over time and becomes a searchable archive of everything we have discussed.
Julie Zhuo describes shared running documents as a 1:1 standard in The Making of a Manager. Manager Tools has taught the practice for over 30 years. At Stripe, Brie Wolfson documented a three-section template (decisions, actions, editorial) that became part of the company's writing culture.
All of these sources describe the practice for managers and their direct reports. I use it more broadly: my manager, my regional counterparts, my finance contact, any relationship where I have recurring conversations. The concept works regardless of hierarchy.
Why a shared document works better than a meeting agenda
A meeting agenda is a plan for a single conversation. It lists topics, but the substance arrives in the meeting itself. Everyone shows up, hears the context for the first time, and needs time to process before they can respond. That is where the ping-pong starts: you present, the other person takes it away, comes back with a response a week later, presents it to you, you take it away. Weeks pass.
The shared document breaks this cycle because both sides work in it between meetings. I write my three timeline questions on Monday with the context attached. My counterpart reads them on Tuesday, answers two directly in the document, and adds a clarifying question on the third. By Wednesday, the third answer is there. No meeting needed. Three days instead of three weeks.
When a meeting does happen, both sides have already read the points and had time to think. The meeting can start at the decision.
Why Slack and Teams messages do not replace a shared document
Cal Newport describes in A World Without Email (2021) how instant messaging has become the default mode for knowledge work, and how that default creates constant context-switching and fragmented attention. I have seen this specific version of the problem in every team I have been part of.
You spend 20 minutes thinking through a problem, write it up carefully, and post it in Slack. The other person sees it between three other conversations, sends a quick reply. Two hours later, your message has scrolled past 40 newer ones. The context is gone. The substantive point you raised needs to be raised again, in another format, at another time.
A shared document keeps the point visible until it is resolved. The response happens when the other person has time to think. Chat goes back to doing what it was designed for: coordination. "Take a look at the document, I added the budget question."
Shared documents for teams: when to organize by person, when by topic
One practical question comes up quickly: what happens when the meeting is no longer a 1:1? When someone from finance joins, or the regional team brings a third person?
The rule I follow: if I meet the same person regularly (my manager, my regional counterpart), I keep a document per person. If I work on the same topic with changing participants (a product launch that involves marketing one week and marketing plus finance the next), I keep a document per topic. In practice, that means three to five person-documents and two to three topic-documents running at the same time.
A shared running document template that actually works
Here is a simplified version of a shared document with a regional marketing counterpart:
Open for next conversation
Timing for Q3 campaign assets (Julia to confirm agency availability)
Social media budget reallocation: I drafted a proposal, see below (Manuel)
Log
May 12 Decisions: Q2 campaign performance review stays biweekly. We skip the June alignment meeting (no open items). Actions: Julia sends final asset list by May 16. Manuel shares revised media plan by May 19. Notes: Julia flagged that the agency might not have capacity for the July deliverables. Need a fallback option.
April 28 Decisions: We move the product launch content from June to July (dependency on packaging approval). Actions: Manuel updates the content calendar. Julia informs the regional sales team.
April 14 Decisions: Budget split for H2 agreed (60/40 digital vs. print, same as H1). Actions: Julia confirms with her finance contact. Manuel adjusts the media plan. Notes: Julia's finance contact suggested we revisit the split in September based on H1 results. Added to open points.
The April 14 note about revisiting the budget split feeds forward into a future open point. The document carries it. Nothing gets lost between meetings because there is always one place where everything lives.
How to introduce shared documents in your team
Introducing this as a top-down initiative will create friction in organizations without a writing culture. The easier path: start with one colleague. Someone you meet regularly, someone open to trying a different format. Set up the document, and spend five minutes in your first meeting explaining what you are proposing. A shared space for everything that runs between the two of you. Both sides write in it, both sides own it. The first time you use it, walk through the structure together so the purpose is clear.
Some people will adopt it quickly. Others will not, and that is fine. My skip-level manager will probably never fill in a shared Google Doc. The practice works best peer-to-peer and in stable working relationships where both sides can see the benefit over a few weeks.
It takes time until the habit sticks. The moment that tends to sell it: when someone adds a point to the document, you write your answer underneath, and the scheduled meeting turns out to be ten minutes shorter. Or unnecessary altogether.
If you are looking for another practice that works without anyone's permission, I also write a weekly update every Friday. Fifteen minutes, three sections, and the side effect that my manager always knows where things stand. I describe the format in Why I write a weekly update before anyone asks.
Sources and further reading
Julie Zhuo, The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You (2019).
Mark Horstman, Manager Tools (manager-tools.com).
Brie Wolfson, "Writing in Public, Inside Your Company" (2022).
Cal Newport, A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload (2021).
