Memo template in Markdown: who, when, why and what next

A memo template gives a fixed shape to one message for a group: who it's for, who it's from, the date, why you're writing and what happens next. With this internal memo template, each memo gets one plain Markdown file, kept with your other .md files.

Below sit this post's template, a line on what each part holds, a filled-in memo for an invented office, tips for keeping a memo short, and a word on naming the file. This memo template stays plain text from top to bottom, and no install is needed.

Memo files and status reports

Here a memo means a .md file carrying one message from one person to a group of people at one point in time. It stands on its own, outside any weekly report or meeting. The header lines at its top say who the memo is for, who wrote it, when, and what it's about. The headings under them give the reason for the memo, the facts behind that reason, the next steps and one person to contact.

Next to a memo, a weekly status report covers different ground. It sums up one person's work week, and each new week starts a fresh file. A memo has no such schedule: you write one when there's a message to share, and it covers that message alone.

The memo template

Paste this post's template block into your own empty .md file, then put your own wording in place of each placeholder.

# Memo: the subject in a few words

- To: the people or the group this memo is for
- From: your name
- Date: Month D, YYYY
- Subject: the message in one line

## Purpose

One or two sentences on why you are writing and what you want people to know.

## Background

Only the facts people need to follow the next part.

## What happens next

- Who does what, and by which date.

## Who to contact

The one person to go to with questions about this memo.

Part by part, here is what goes where:

• Title line. A # heading opening with the word Memo and naming the matter in a few words, so line one tells people what the file is about.
• Header lines. Four dash lines for To, From, Date and Subject. To names the people or the group the memo is for, From holds your name, Date holds the day you wrote the memo, and Subject puts the message in one line.
• Why a dash list. Lines typed one under another, with nothing between them, can come out joined into a single line, as the post on Markdown line breaks shows. In a dash list, each header line is a list item of its own and keeps a line to itself.
• Purpose. One or two sentences on why you're writing and what you want people to know.
• Background. The facts people need to follow the next part, and nothing past that.
• What happens next. One dash line per step, naming who does what and by which date.
• Who to contact. The one person to go to with questions about the memo.

A sample memo from Doe Holdings

Everything in this memo is made up. The company name and both people's names are placeholders, and the kitchen, the repair and the dates are invented as well.

# Memo: office kitchen closed for repairs

- To: all staff at Doe Holdings
- From: Jane Doe
- Date: Monday, October 19, 2026
- Subject: Kitchen closed from Monday, October 26 to Friday, October 30

## Purpose

Jane Doe is closing the office kitchen for one work week, from Monday, October 26 to Friday, October 30, for repairs to the sink and the floor.

## Background

Jane Doe found water under the kitchen sink on Friday, October 16, 2026. John Doe looked at the floor that same day and found rotten boards under the sink.

## What happens next

- Staff take their food out of the kitchen fridge by 5 in the evening on Friday, October 23.
- Jane Doe locks the kitchen at 6 in the evening on Friday, October 23.
- Staff can use the small room on the second floor for lunch from Monday, October 26 to Friday, October 30.
- John Doe sets up a kettle and a water jug in that room on Monday, October 26.
- Jane Doe opens the kitchen again on Monday, November 2.

## Who to contact

Staff can talk to John Doe at the front desk with any questions about the kitchen week.

The title and the Subject line name the same matter: the kitchen closing. Background holds two facts, the water under the sink and the rotten boards, and both explain why Jane Doe is closing the kitchen. Every line under What happens next names a person or a group and a date. Who to contact names one person, John Doe.

Tips for a short memo

A short memo is this template's aim. Each of the five tips below shows up in the template block and in the Doe Holdings sample:

• One subject per memo. The template's Subject line holds the message in one line, and the sample stays on the kitchen closing from the title to the last heading.
• A short purpose. The template's Purpose placeholder calls for one or two sentences, and the sample's Purpose is a single sentence.
• Background that serves the next part. The template's Background placeholder holds only the facts people need to follow What happens next. In the sample, both Background sentences explain why the kitchen closes.
• Names and dates under What happens next. The template's placeholder line names who does what and by which date. In the sample, each of the five lines under that heading names a person or a group and a date.
• One person to contact. The template's last heading holds one person, and the sample names John Doe alone.

When the message in a memo is a choice between options, write that choice up in a separate file with the decision record template. There, each option gets one line marked Chosen or given the reason it lost.

A short talk you plan to give out loud at a meeting goes in a talk script, a file of its own.

Naming the memo file

Keep one .md file per memo, so each file holds one message. For case, separators and dates, see Markdown file naming conventions, which covers lowercase names, hyphens between words and, for files that collect over time, a leading date written year first.

Memos collect in just that way. This template's choice is a memos/ folder holding a file for each memo, named for the day the memo was written, such as memos/2026-10-19-kitchen-closed.md. With the year first, sorting the folder by name puts the memos in order of date. The date in that sample file name matches the sample's Date line, October 19, 2026.

Where Sashmark fits

On the desktop, Sashmark will be one Markdown reader with an editor built in, designed for people who keep stacks of .md files from AI agents. None of Sashmark is out at this point, since all of Sashmark remains in development. Sashmark is meant for collections like a memos folder kept among a project's other .md files.

See the planned features, the help pages and the roadmap for where each part stands.

Visit sashmark.com.