How many meetings are on your calendar today?
Take a moment, and count them.
Now, add up how much of your day will be spent in a conference room or on a call.
Better yet, how much of your day is left to get work done?
Did You Get Anything Done Today?
True story.
The other day after work, I picked up my 10-year old son from summer day camp. In the car on the way home, the following conversation happened…
“Dad, what did you do at work today?”
“I was in meetings all day.”
“Oh, so you didn’t do any real work, then?”
Insightful kid.
He then followed up with…
“Meetings are where you talk about work, but don’t do any.” (Tweet this Quote)
Smart, too.
Get Out of the Meeting
How much of your day will be spent “in meeting” today?
Will you be getting any work done? Or instead, endlessly talking about the same issues, gossip, and non-worthy topics?
Here are some tips to help you “Stop Meeting and Start Working:”
- Block your time – Defend your calendar by blocking your time. Reserve time for yourself and your work. Make appointments for your tough tasks and project work.
- Right to Decline – Give yourself and your employees the right to decline meetings that they do not need to attend. This is a powerful concept that will quickly identify those meetings that are not worth the time.
- No Meeting Friday – Select one day a week that is “meeting free.” Friday is a good day for this. Spend it doing creative work and getting work done while others are wrapping up their week.
- Cut Your Meetings in Half – Keep those meetings short. Most meetings don’t need the time allotted to them. Try cutting your meeting times in half.
- Hold Better Meetings – Not all meetings are bad. Bad meetings are bad. Hold better meetings by having established meeting rules and using tools such as Less Meeting.
Stop Meeting and Start Working
Talking about work doesn’t get it done.
Doing the work… does.
So, get out of those meetings and get busy doing.
Question: Do you spend all day in meetings? Or do you actually get work done?
Blocking my time has been something new to me this year. Is I’ve started doing it, and I see those meetings in my calendar, I sometimes don’t stick to what I’ve planned. Trying to get better at it and stick to the plan!
I’m actually planning my next 3 months this weekend!
For each of the five college organizations I lead, I find I am in a meet every day (board and general). What I found best works is to send an agenda out: highest priorities get discussed first. I set a time (so everyone knows we plan to get everything done in 30, 45, 60 mins). We also leave time for fun (highs/lows for the week) -> I find this puts everyone in a good mood to start and a team that can laugh together is just more focused and willing to collaborate.
I used to have this conversation with my dad too:
“Dad, what did you do at work today?”
“I was in meetings all day.”
“Oh, so you didn’t do any real work, then?”
I am a little biased, since I work for a meeting productivity tool (http://www.lessmeeting.com), but you had some really awesome tips that compliment Less Meeting’s software. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the app and any features you think we could add to help make meetings less painful.