With working professionals spending more than half their working time sitting in meetings it’s important to avoid wasting time in meetings.
Meetings with clients, co-workers, suppliers, your boss…there seems to be no end to the number of meetings (virtual or otherwise) that fill up your calendar.
Don’t get me wrong, meetings can be good and are often necessary.
They provide an avenue for people in an organization to set goals, plans, and action steps. It’s where tasks are assigned and delegated, and updates are made.
Sometimes, everyone in the office is all too busy with their own work that meetings are the only place they discuss things with the rest of the group.
However, meetings have a tendency to get out of hand and people end up wasting time in meetings.
Some go on for hours on end without a clear direction.
People gather together without a clear agenda, side meetings go on simultaneously, no one facilitates, and ultimately time is wasted and nothing is achieved. Even worse, people never seem to learn from these failed meetings, and more meetings are scheduled.
When you are searching for ways to capture time back into your day, to be more productive and avoid wasting time in meetings, this is a good place to start.
Start by asking yourself these questions:
- Why are we having this meeting? Is a meeting the only option?
- Who absolutely needs to attend? Who doesn’t need to but we often include?
- What do we want to accomplish during the meeting?
- How long do we need in order to accomplish our goals?
- How will we know it was successful?
The answer to these questions will help guide the direction and avoid wasting time in meetings.
Here are tips help you avoid wasting time in meetings:
Make sure someone facilitates and leads the meeting.
Every meeting needs someone to steer the meeting, and the attendees in the right direction if the discussion begins to get out of hand. The facilitator will help control the flow of discussions, and direct everyone to move on when the meeting tends to dwell too much on details.
Set a clear agenda for the entire meeting.
This will keep everyone guided on major concerns and issues to be discussed. And share the agenda with the attendees in advance so they know what to expect and can come prepared.
Always aim to keep the meeting short.
The longer employees sit in a meeting, the longer they leave work undone. Set the timeframe for the meeting and stick to it. Setting the agenda and goals for the meeting will help you keep it short.
Each speaker or presenter should be given a time limit.
This will allow the meeting to move smoothly from one topic to the next. Make sure to build in time for Q&A for each presenter.
Never leave the meeting with vague plans and unfinished ideas.
The productivity of the entire meeting should be measured by concrete action steps everybody agreed on.
Follow through with action steps agreed to.
Make sure someone keeps track of the minutes of the meeting. Send it to each one present during the meeting, and include a list of the tasks assigned to each member of the team.
It will take practice to avoid wasting time in meetings and master the art of productive meetings.
It’s easy to allow side topics to take you off course or to spend too much time letting everyone have time to speak, about every topic and not get through the agenda or decisions made.
A lot of time is wasted in meetings that aren’t necessary or unproductive. Take a look at meetings you attend and meetings you convene and see where you can recapture some time.
Want to figure out other places you may be letting time slip away?
Get our Tips For Better Time Management.
