There’s an obvious way to reduce your back-to-back meetings:
Stop scheduling them back-to-back!
And that’s it.
You’re welcome.
Now it’s possible you’ve thought of this.
So here are some simple ways to help ensure this happens.
When you schedule a meeting:
- Give yourself 5-10 minutes either side of it, with nothing else in the diary
- Don’t schedule them for 30/60 minutes. Instead, use 20/40 minutes max
- Don’t start/stop them on the half-hour. Example: yesterday, I had a meeting 9.10–9.25am
(I can almost hear people saying ‘that new-age thinking won’t work here, Andy”!)
When you’re invited to a meeting, consider one/some of:
- Propose a new, shorter time
- Say you can only make the first half – ‘so can we do Agenda Item 3 first?’
- Decline, but ask for a 121 beforehand, so they get the info they need from you
- Decline, when appropriate. Remember: it’s an invite, not a court summons
Back-to-back meetings are rarely a good idea.
When are you supposed to move, have a break, do something different?
But the great news is: you can do ‘more than nothing’ to change it.
Action Point
- Preview today’s diary. And, for any back-to-back meetings, do ‘more than nothing’ to change it.
- Click here