By J. Mason
Online Career Tips Editor
Meetings for some are a waste of time. Unless you run your business off of meetings, or events, it can be a huge time suck to be in a meeting room for several hours throughout the week. You need to optimize your time while you have it, and if that means scheduling time to work on your own projects then do it.
For example, my calendar today has about two hours that aren’t blocked off with phone calls or meetings. This is my typical Monday schedule, but I don’t let the blocked off parts of my calendar detract from getting my work done. I always schedule 30 minute chunks of time to devote to other tasks that need to get done that week. As I gradually work them in between talks with c0-workers, and recurring meetings, I can eventually check things off my list.
Another way to optimize all your time spent in meetings is to have an agenda. If it’s a planning meeting, come prepared with your own ideas. Help the meeting organizer keep the conversation focused and away from socializing; you don’t want that 30 minutes turning into an hour. If it’s a follow-up, then see if it can be handled through email. Not every situation calls for one, so make sure to schedule these get together’s when it’s necessary.
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