It’s an excellent time to review your recurring meeting commitments and make any necessary changes to free up time to focus on your most valuable activities. Meetings have a tendency to get “layered up” on our calendar, and, over time, we find we have very little “white space” on our calendar for the important tasks and projects needing our dedicated attention and focus.
The Fix:
Carve out some time this week to analyze your meeting commitments by undertaking the following analysis and asking yourself the following questions:
Review back through your calendar for the last three months
Mark the meetings that you attended that truly advanced progress on your work goals, professional goals, or personal goals
Which meetings were critical to goal achievement?
Which meetings generally had no impact on your goals?
Which meetings could you clearly have missed?
Are there meetings someone could have attended on your behalf? What will you do about those going forward?
Going forward, is there a day or half-day each week that you can set aside as “meeting-free” time blocks?
Are there meetings scheduled on your calendar that you can “unwind” and let go of? Take action on those as well.
Best Practices:
As you receive meeting invitations in the coming weeks, revisit the outcome of the above analysis to help make better decisions on which meetings to attend and which to let go of (or say “no” to).
Ferociously protect your calendar — resolve to make this a key goal and priority
Uphold your “meeting-free” days and time blocks
Revisit “The Fix” above at the beginning of each quarter
Make better and wiser meeting choices going forward, and reap the benefit of improved productivity and accelerated goal achievement.
Andy Robinson, Executive Coach
239-285-5575
Andy@AndyRobinson.Coach
"Helping CEO's and executives maximize their influence and impact."