Have you ever worked on a project, and you have a daily call to discuss said project? I had a daily 8:15 AM call that we talked about the same thing. We tried to limit it to 15 minutes, but it usually ran a half hour. Or even 45 minutes. We were eventually able to hold it thrice a week, but even then, there wasn’t that time to “get settled into the day” before this call started.

And then there were the weekly project meetings. And the monthly financial meetings. And the weekly or bi-weekly (ever two weeks, in this case) team meetings. So. Many. Meetings.

I would put things on my calendar to remind me to do things. Not only were these reminders to actually do them, they assured that I also had the time to do them. So there really was no excuse to get these things done – that is unless a previous meeting or task was running long and absconding with that time.

Want to help prevent people from scheduling a meeting during your normal lunch hour? Put your lunch on your calendar 12:00 – 1:00 every day. Want to help prevent people from scheduling a meeting late in the day when you’d rather be getting ready to go home? Put a 4:00 or 4:30 daily meeting on your calendar. This won’t stop people from using those times, but maybe help a little. Or at least send a message not to use those times. Of course, if you’re one of many being invited, those times might be the only times available for most, so you might just be stuck.

Our company, from a high level of management, has “Personal Development Time” on the entire IT department’s calendars for – are you ready for this? – 3:00 – 5:00 on every, single Friday. So this not only helps keep non-coworkers from booking meetings, it certainly helps prevent coworkers and teammates from doing that because we ALL have that time booked.

I find that if I am trying to participate in a meeting, I can’t really do anything else but listen in, because as I’ve mentioned in another post, if I start to read e-mails while listening in on a meeting, I tend to turn off my ears.

While most of us have worked from home for the better part of two years due to the pandemic, being in the office actually does have its advantages because people can gather in conference rooms where all they do is listen, talk, and take notes – no extra curricular activity is really possible because who wants to be the one caught reading e-mails in a room of people.

Some – OK, few – meetings are truly “enjoyable”. So a fair amount of the day is occupied with dread (to some extent). So who would miss that, right?!!? Not me. While our bi-weekly team meetings were usually more casual, and we were free to speak openly, I will miss those a little (more the people). But as a whole, no, I won’t miss the meetings.