If several meetings are scheduled for the day, one protracted meeting can disrupt all plans. Entrepreneur Patrick Ewers offers three strategies to help you avoid this.

1. Before a meeting: shorten the meeting

Meetings usually last half an hour or an hour. It is most convenient to add such time periods to the calendar. But because of this, it turns out that one meeting starts right after another. As a result, there are a lot of inconveniences.

Replace half-hour meetings with 25-minute meetings and 50-minute meetings for 1-hour meetings. You will be able to do everything you did before. On the other hand, between two consecutive meetings, there will be little time left to prepare, rest or solve urgent issues.

In order not to offend any of the participants, warn about changes in advance. When making an appointment, simply mention that your meetings are now 25 or 50 minutes long.

2. During the meeting: Remind attendees of the purpose of the meeting and summarize the results together

The first minutes of the meeting are extremely important. Use them to remind everyone what you’re here for and how long the meeting will last. Mention that you have about 50 minutes to discuss all the issues, and the last five minutes will be spent on summing up the results. Then no one would be surprised that you started canceling the meeting after 45 minutes. Most likely, other participants will even be grateful, because this way you save not only your time, but also them.

Set a reminder or alarm clock that will ring in 45 minutes and place your phone on your desk so everyone can remember the time and stay focused. When the signal sounds, end the meeting no matter where you leave.

If you don’t have time to resolve all the issues, schedule a new meeting for another day in the remaining five minutes. And also:

repeat who has made commitments;

briefly list the main findings;

agree on the next steps;

Please share something positive, such as what you enjoyed about this meeting.

3. After the meeting: Briefly review the meeting and prepare for the next one

After a 50-minute meeting, you should have 10 minutes to spare. Spend the first five on reviewing the main points of the previous meeting so you don’t forget anything. Also, draft a letter to all participants to remind them of their decisions and commitments. This will increase the value of the time spent, and also provide something even more valuable — a sense of completion.

Spend the second five minutes preparing for the upcoming meeting. If you already know the participants, remind yourself:

what issues should be discussed;

what previous tasks needed to be completed;

What do you know about the participants: their professional and personal interests

If you don’t know the person you’re going to meet, look for information about him: specify his name and position, look at social media profiles. And think about what phrase you’ll start the conversation with.

Source: https://lifehacker.ru/provedenie-soveshhanij/

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