I do a quick first-pass at an outline. It's about 20 words, but it often takes at least half an hour to figure them out.

Learned from Les Edgerton, author of Hooked.

Complication or inciting incident:
Debt endangers Pete (This is the complication that provides the occasion for the story. Every story must have an inciting incident to kick-start it. Something must happen that changes the protagonist's world and by doing so, creates a problem/goal. This is where stories must begin - not with setting or backstory. Act I, as it were.)

Development: (This is the second part of the outline. The development steps that lead to the resolution. Act II, as it were, following Aristotle's Poetics)
1.Tommy cons Pete into a kidnapping
2. Pete and Tommy botch kidnapping
3. Pete escapes

Resolution: (This is the third and final step. Act III.)
Pete pays for mistake

from http://lesedgertononwriting.blogspot.com/2010/04/outlining.html
(But i pulled out that example because it's a long post to read)