USING YOUR TIME EFFICIENTLYAvoid Inefficient Meetings
Meetings—face-to-face events and teleconfer-
ences alike—can be great consumers of collective
time. While it’s often important to meet as a
group to get work done, it’s equally important to
conduct meetings in a timely fashion. To run a
productive meeting, preparation is key. You need
to make sure there’s a valid reason for the meet-
ing and that the right people are invited.
Purpose.Determine what you want to accom-
plish at the meeting. Let everyone know in
advance why their presence is required, what
their roles are, and how their participation fi ts
into the big picture.
Never waste time at the beginning of a meet-
ing deciding what should be on the agenda.
Prepare and distribute an agenda in advance.
When participants know the overall agenda,
they come better prepared, leaving more time
during the meeting to move the group’s think-
ing forward.
People.Who needs to be involved? Inviting
people to a meeting who don’t really need to be
there wastes their time—as well as everybody
else’s—by bringing up unrelated issues. When
you invite people to a meeting, always tell them
why you have asked them. For example, tell
George in Finance, “We need a fi nancial services
representative to advise us on the fi scal bound-
aries related to this project.” If you can’t tell a
person precisely why he is needed at a meeting,
don’t extend the invitation. (If you are asked
to a meeting that you have no reason to attend,
politely decline.)