How long should a session recap be?

Under 200 words: three or four lines on what you covered, the next steps as a short list, and open questions only if something is genuinely unresolved.

How does Fenlio write a session recap?

From the call or notes you drop into that client's record, alongside the rest of their file. Every figure is checked against the client's own words, and the recap waits for your approval.

Templates

Session recap template for coaches

A session recap is the short message a coach sends after a consult, a call or a training session.

Have Fen write yours Or copy the outline

What goes in it

It restates what you covered in the client's own words, lists what they do next with a date where you agreed one, and names anything still open. Send it the same day, while the session is fresh, and keep it under 200 words so it reads well on a phone.

The whole email under 200 words.

1
Subject
Names the session and the next step.
2
What we covered
Three or four lines. Their words, not yours.
3
Next steps
Each starts with a verb and says who does it, the client or you, with a date where your notes give one.
4
Open questions
What is still to decide. Omit if your notes settle everything.

When to send it

After a consult call with a new lead, to keep the decision moving.
After a check-in call where you changed the plan.
After an in-person session that ended with homework or a new habit.

Common mistakes

Recapping your own advice instead of what the client said.
Next steps with no date, or with 'we' as the owner.
Waiting two days, by which point the recap reads as a formality.

Why it works

Meeting research led by Steven Rogelberg finds follow-through improves when each action has one named owner and a deadline, and the summary is sent after the meeting.
Rogelberg, Do we really need another meeting? The science of workplace meetings
Most readers scan before they read: in Nielsen Norman Group's eyetracking work, 79% of users scanned a new page and only 16% read word by word. Put the point in the first line.
Nielsen Norman Group, How users read on the web
The inverted pyramid, conclusion first and detail after, lets a reader stop at any point and still leave with the answer.
Nielsen Norman Group, Inverted pyramid

Copy the outline

Paste it into any document.

SESSION RECAP

Subject
[Names the session and the next step.]

What we covered
[Three or four lines. Their words, not yours.]

Next steps
[Each starts with a verb and says who does it, the client or you, with a date where your notes give one.]
1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 

Open questions
[What is still to decide. Omit if your notes settle everything.]
1. 
2. 
3.

Let Fen write it

1
Bring the client's record
Their intake, check-ins and messages, pasted, dropped or imported into that client's record.
2
It can't make up a number
Every weight, date and figure Fen writes is checked against the client's own words, and a load or macro target is computed from your rules. One with no source is flagged, never guessed.
3
You decide what goes out
At default settings nothing reaches a client until you press. Email replies go out from your own Gmail when you press Approve and send.

Questions

How long should a session recap be?: Under 200 words: three or four lines on what you covered, the next steps as a short list, and open questions only if something is genuinely unresolved.
How does Fenlio write a session recap?: From the call or notes you drop into that client's record, alongside the rest of their file. Every figure is checked against the client's own words, and the recap waits for your approval.