What should coaching session notes include?
Five things, and none of them is a full transcript.
- Where you left off, in two sentences.
- Key moments in the client’s exact words. Three to five is plenty.
- The one commitment they made, quoted.
- What they were afraid of or resisted.
- The thread for next time: two or three open questions.
That list comes from the prep and follow-up prompts in the pack I gave the coaches in my April workshop.
The prep version adds one more line: something to celebrate that the client may not have noticed themselves.
It’s written to be read in ninety seconds before the call.
Should coaches take notes during the session?
Coaches disagree, and both sides have a point.
Writing during a session pulls attention away from the person in front of you. Writing nothing means rebuilding the relationship from memory every week.
A coach in r/executivecoaching described wanting to “keep track of what we talked through in session, without me having to keep notes.”
What I teach: no compulsory recordings. Start with the notes you already take, even messy ones, and do the structuring after the session, not during it.
Can I use AI for coaching session notes?
Yes, if the client knows and nothing reaches them before you’ve read it.
Tell clients before you record a session or paste notes into an AI tool, and let them say no. Keep anything client-facing as a draft.
In my coaches workshop we practise on fictional, anonymised or permissioned notes, never a real client’s file.
The full workflow, with a consent script, a note template and a worked example, is in AI session notes for coaches.
Check your tool’s data settings before the first session, not after. If your work touches health information, get proper advice on what applies to you.
I’m not a lawyer. Records about people make me careful: keep what you’ll use, and know where it lives.
“Here are my notes from today’s session with [initials]. Write the session note:
Where we left off (2 sentences). 3–5 key moments in their exact words.
The one commitment they made (quoted). What they resisted. 3 open questions for next time.
Use only what’s in my notes. Mark anything you’re unsure of instead of guessing.”
From notes to follow-up
The note is for you. The follow-up is for them.
The follow-up draft in my April pack does three small things.
It names the most powerful moment from the call in the client’s words. It quotes the one commitment they made.
And it ends with the action you assigned.
You edit it. You send it. That part doesn’t get automated.
When notes matter less
With a one-off intensive, a good follow-up email may be all the record you need.
Notes earn their keep when you see the same person over months, or enough clients that last month starts to blur.
That’s when “where did we leave this?” starts eating into the session.
Next: the same notes-to-recap pattern is a simple AI workflow, and themes from your sessions can feed content repurposing, with permission.