---
title: "40 meeting check-in questions (and a Slack poll template)"
url: "https://simplepoll.rocks/templates/meeting-check-in-questions/"
description: "40 check-in questions to open a meeting, from one-word rounds to energy checks, and how to run the check-in as a Slack poll before the meeting starts."
---

# Meeting check-in questions

When to use it: When a recurring meeting starts cold, people join distracted, or you want to know the room's energy before you pick the agenda.

How often: Every meeting

A meeting check-in question is a short prompt at the start of a meeting that gets everyone to
say something before the real agenda. A good one takes under a minute per person, or no time at
all if you post it as a Slack poll before the meeting and read the result when it starts.

Below are 40 check-in questions, sorted by how much time you have, and the `/poll` text to run
them in Slack with Simple Poll.

## Example polls

Paste any of these into the message box in Slack.

```text
/poll "Check-in: energy level today?" "Running on empty" "Low" "Okay" "Good" "Full battery" scale anonymous close after 1 hour
```

An anonymous energy check that closes when the meeting starts (Premium for the close). *Premium: closing automatically.*

```text
/poll "Green, yellow or red for this week?" "Green, on track" :large_green_circle: "Yellow, a bit stretched" :large_yellow_circle: "Red, need help" :red_circle: anonymous
```

A traffic-light check-in. Free. *Free.*

```text
/poll "Check-in: what is one thing on your mind that is not on the agenda?" short text
```

An open round, answered before the meeting so you can read them out. *Free.*

## One-word and one-click check-ins

For a big meeting or a short one. Everyone answers in seconds.

- One word for how you are arriving today?
- Energy level from 1 to 5?
- Green, yellow or red for this week?
- Weather report: sunny, cloudy or stormy?
- How full is your plate: light, right or overflowing?
- Coffee count so far today?
- Which emoji is your week so far?
- Ready to focus, or still finishing something?
- Rate yesterday from 1 to 5.
- What is your focus word for today?

## Quick round questions

For teams of up to eight, one sentence each.

- What is one thing on your mind that is not on the agenda?
- What was a win since we last met?
- What would make this meeting worth your time?
- What is something you are looking forward to?
- What is one thing you learned this week?
- What is taking up most of your head space right now?
- Who helped you this week?
- What is one thing you need from this group today?
- What is something small that went well?
- What did you finish since last time?

## Questions for retros and planning

- How confident are you in this sprint's goal, from 1 to 5?
- What surprised you since the last planning?
- What is one risk we are not talking about?
- What should we stop doing?
- What is one thing you would change about how we work?
- Where did you lose the most time this week?
- What is a decision you are waiting on?
- Which part of the plan worries you most?
- What made you proud of the team recently?
- If this project were a weather forecast, what would it be?

## Light questions for warm-ups

- What is the best thing you ate this week?
- What are you reading, watching or listening to?
- Where would you be if you were not here?
- What is a small thing that made you smile today?
- What did you do last weekend in three words?
- What is the view from your window right now?
- What is a skill you would like to learn this year?
- Which song is stuck in your head?
- What is your go-to snack for long meetings?
- What is one thing you are grateful for this week?

## Run the check-in as a poll

Post the check-in in the meeting's Slack channel an hour before it starts. People answer
when they have a moment, and you open the meeting with the result instead of going round
the room. That saves five minutes in a meeting of ten.

For energy and mood questions, make the poll `anonymous` so people answer honestly, and use
a `scale` so you get an average to compare week to week. For open questions, use `short
text` and read two or three answers aloud. Add `close after 1 hour` (Premium) so the poll
closes when the meeting starts. For a weekly meeting, make it a recurring poll (Premium).

Use the answers. If half the room says "overflowing", cut the agenda. A check-in nobody
acts on turns into a ritual people skip. For feedback after the meeting, use the
[meeting feedback template](https://simplepoll.rocks/templates/meeting-feedback/).

## FAQ

### What is a check-in question?

A short question at the start of a meeting that everyone answers before the agenda. It
gets people talking and tells you how the room is doing.

### Should check-in answers be anonymous?

For energy, stress or workload, yes: add `anonymous`. For light questions or wins, keep
names so people can follow up with each other.

### How long should a check-in take?

Under five minutes. If you run it as a Slack poll before the meeting, it takes none of the
meeting itself.

### How is this different from a standup?

A standup asks about work: what you did and what is blocking you. A check-in asks how
people are arriving. For async standups, see the
[daily standup check-in](https://simplepoll.rocks/templates/daily-standup-check-in/).

## Related

- [Meeting feedback poll for Slack](https://simplepoll.rocks/templates/meeting-feedback/): When a recurring meeting has been running for a while and you aren't sure it still earns its slot in everyone's calendar.
- [Team mood check-in poll for Slack](https://simplepoll.rocks/templates/team-mood-check-in/): When you want an early, honest signal on how the team is feeling, before it shows up as missed deadlines or resignations.
- [Daily standup check-in poll for Slack](https://simplepoll.rocks/templates/daily-standup-check-in/): When your team is spread across time zones or calendars and a live standup costs more than it returns, but you still want a daily read on progress and blockers.
- [Meeting agenda topics poll for Slack](https://simplepoll.rocks/templates/meeting-agenda-topics/): A day or two before a team meeting, planning session or one-to-one series, so the agenda reflects what people need to discuss rather than what the organiser remembered.
- [Sprint retrospective poll for Slack](https://simplepoll.rocks/templates/sprint-retrospective/): At the end of every sprint, before the retro meeting, so people can answer honestly and you walk in with the themes already on the table.
- [Slack polls for managers and team leads](https://simplepoll.rocks/use-cases/managers-and-team-leads/): A team lead's job is mostly two things: deciding, and finding out what you do not know. Both get easier with a handful of well-timed polls. The point is not to vote on everything. It is to stop spending a meeting on questions a poll answers in an hour, and to hear the things your team would not say to your face.

## Sources

- [How to create an anonymous poll in Slack](https://help.simplepoll.rocks/article/123-how-to-create-an-anonymous-poll-in-slack)

---

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