Time is a valuable thing. We’re living in the era of the immediate: we want everything now and we don’t have 1 second to wait or lose. For instance, meetings have the precedent of being considered a waste of time, and although this is not always the case, unfortunately its negative image is due to bad management of time and order.
Most people don’t know how to keep an efficient tracking of their personal time: waking up late, no time to eat breakfast, rushing to the office, lots of emails and tasks to do, staying extra hours at work, barely time for resting and the list can go on and on.
Sounds familiar?
So if we can’t manage our own time, how can we even manage the time for our work meetings?
Well, there are a few things we can do in order or keeping work meetings short and productive and we shared it with you in this article.
1. Have an estimated time for every meeting and stick to it
Nobody likes meetings, but long meetings are the absolute worst. I think we all can share the experience of going to an endless meeting, just watching the time passing and wondering when will be over. Do you know why that happens? Because there’s not an estimated time or schedule to follow.
Very often people assume that a long meeting is the solution to many working problems, but is not like that at all. At some point, people start feeling burned out and just stop processing all the information. Because guess what? There is a lot of information going on during those long meetings. That’s why it is so important to have an estimated time and try to not keep it for longer than an hour.
The schedule is another thing to consider: don’t try to handle different topics at the same time. Keep things organized: address one subject at time, and please don’t ever have meetings on a Friday at 4:00 pm.
2. Frequent meetings are the best
We are not saying you should meet with your employees daily, but what about weekly? Having a meeting once a week sets enough time to check progress and discuss new ideas. By making meetings a regular thing your teams will work ahead of this, you won’t be taking them by surprise, and a more integrated work environment will flow in your company.
Your employees need to feel comfortable enough to communicate everything they need. With frequent meetings, you will set up the perfect occasion for this.
Employees prefer having often but short meetings, instead of longer once a month meetings.
3. Know how to end your meetings
Okay, we already told you about keeping your meetings short and frequent, but do you know how to end them? Yes, there is a very effective way of ending your meetings and this is with a plan of action.
Even when keeping our meetings short, it is very usual not having a plan of action, and many employees can feel a bit lost or with many questions. If you’re having a meeting is because you’re discussing something important, so it’s not enough just to talk about it and leave it there.
You need a plan with actions and indications: what’s coming next, who’s going to be working with who, deadlines, and more. This way you’re also teaching your employees how to anticipate as they leave the meeting knowing exactly what to do next.
Following up your meetings is equally important as following up with your customers.
4. Take notes
This is an essential skill. We are not saying you should take notes of every word said, but you definitely need to write down the highlights. Unfortunately, not all people know how to take notes of meetings, so you can implement sending a minute after the meeting is over. The best way of doing this is of course by keeping it short: with a few paragraphs or bullet points is more than enough, this way you will make sure of people reading it.
5. Review your attendees list
This is very important because having the right or the wrong people can make or break your meeting effectiveness. Sometimes it is even better to cancel if a key person can’t attend. Another common mistake is having people that don’t need to be there. Make sure all the attendees have a purpose to accomplish.
Freshservice offers automation features that companies use to speed up daily workflows. All the incidents and problems are managed in real-time. Freshservice provides all the information at your fingertips, plus it automates the internal processes of your company improving your employees experience. Your meetings will only address important topics, no wasting time on minor things because all of that is already taken care by Freshservice.
Did you know that you can get a demo to try Freshservice before actually buying it? Get it here.
Gb Advisors offers you the most qualified state of the art technology. Our software innovations and complementary services are designed to give custom-made responses to all your IT needs. Contact us for more information
