MeeTime Apps
  • app
  • blog
  • press
  • support
  • Microsoft Teams Training

meetime blog

What To Do When Nothing Gets Done Or: How To Cope With Others Wasting Your Time In Meetings

14/2/2018

Comments

 
Picture
Cerys Lowe
You have just spent all day in that meeting.  The one that, at best, kept you from doing actual work and at worst kept you away from family, friends and anything else you would rather be doing with your time - the gym, a side business, the pub.  You are getting paid to sit there in that meeting, the one with no outputs - or worse, actions that are so benign as to be utterly meaningless. The organisation is spending a huge amount on this hidden cost.

What should you do when you are in a meeting like this?

1. Move towards the contrary to find balance. Recurring meetings have two schools of thought - either never miss a recurring meeting or never have a recurring meeting and just hold them when necessary.  For me, it depends what the meeting is for.  If a meeting is required, ask, "is this a meeting we want to be in every day or every week?" If not, it is probably not a very good use of time. In contrast, if you already have a regular meeting, ask, how could we reduce or eliminate this meeting - what tools, people or processes could we use to not have this meeting or to halve the time? Continuously thinking of the opposite is what moves towards the best solution.

2. Review the inputs before the next meeting.  Ask the organiser one on one, "so how will this change things if we did all of these?" Better inputs to think of: what can we do today, and every subsequent day, that will move us closer to our goal. Why do we need a meeting to do these? If we need a meeting, what needs to be true to do it in half the time?  And half the time again?

3. Help the organiser be more action-oriented. Is everyone clear on when the meeting will finish? Bad meetings do not even finish on time. Great meetings finish when the objective is met ahead of time.  Is everyone clear on the output we are trying to get? Is everyone clear on the actions we are trying to drive?

No one comes to work trying to do a bad job.  No one is trying to trap you in meetings that go nowhere.  Using a tool like MeeTime can help if you or someone you know is struggling.  

If you read this far, thank you very much.  

As a Valentines special, so you can get back to your loved ones today, we have five promo codes to give away to the first five people to do the following:  simply visit the website (www.meetimeapps.com), go to the support page (top right) and send an email or fill in the form asking for a promo code and including your job title, where you work, how the app might help you and also mention where you consumed this article.

First come first served - good luck.

More On Meetings


Why Using A Meeting Timer Is The Secret Weapon For Instantly Better Meetings
Why Using A Meeting Timer Is The Secret Weapon For Instantly Better Meetings
MeeTime Is Now Also A Meeting Cost Calculator As Well As A Meeting Timer!
MeeTime Is Now Also A Meeting Cost Calculator As Well As A Meeting Timer!
What Meeting Are You Running?
What Meeting Are You Running?

More From The Blog

How To Get To The Top Of The Life List Or: Why You Should Forget Results And Focus On Your Effort
How To Get To The Top Of The Life List Or: Why You Should Forget Results And Focus On Your Effort
The Wisdom Of Doing Something Small But Consistently Is Never Taught In School Or: Why Entrepreneurs Are Currently Born And Not Made
The Wisdom Of Doing Something Small But Consistently Is Never Taught In School Or: Why Entrepreneurs Are Currently Born And Not Made
How To Gain Focus Or: The First Thing To Decide When Thinking About Time Management
How To Gain Focus Or: The First Thing To Decide When Thinking About Time Management

Picture

Comments
    Follow @meetimeapps
    Tweet to @meetimeapps

    Archives

    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    September 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016

    Categories

    All
    Apps
    Books
    Change
    Communication
    Customer Service
    Downtime
    Email
    Goals
    Gratitude
    Habits
    Meetings
    Microsoft Teams
    Mindfulness
    Money
    Motivation
    Office 365
    Personal Development
    Priorities
    Productivity
    Resiliance
    Stoicism
    Tasks
    Time Management

    RSS Feed

    Tweets by meetimeapps
MeeTime Copyright © 2016
*Goldman Sachs, Rolls Royce, Nielsen, Molson Coors, DXC Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and their respective logos are trademarks and are in NO WAY affiliated, endorsed by or associated with MeeTime.
MeeTime Ltd is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
*Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
Additionally, MeeTime Ltd participates in various other affiliate programs, and we sometimes get a commission through purchases made through our links.
  • app
  • blog
  • press
  • support
  • Microsoft Teams Training