Map your meetings

A little strategy can make work feel more doable

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the New Corner Office,
the podcast where we share strategies for thriving in the
new world of work or location and hours are more
flexible than in the past. Today's tip is to be
strategic about your meetings. By understanding exactly when they'll be happening,

(00:27):
you can be better prepared, manage your energy, and figure
out what times you can do non meeting work too.
Collaboration is amazing in theory, none of us has all
the answers in practice, though, what it means is that
most jobs and big organizations involve a lot of meetings.

(00:47):
This tendency to schedule meetings about everything is exacerbated in
a world where lots of people are working from home.
You can't see your calling to casually ask for his
feedback on your proposal, so schedule a formal meeting to
get his feedback, and thus meetings proliferate. Some of that
is inevitable, but by being a bit more mindful and strategic,

(01:10):
you can manage your meetings better. Here's what you do.
By the time you start work on Monday morning, take
a good look at your calendar for the week. When
do you have meetings summer, no doubt weekly recurring sorts
in summer one off types. Figure out how many hours
you currently have booked into meetings. Then do a little triage.

(01:32):
Do all these meetings have to happen. We've talked in
previous episodes about seeing what can be canceled. Ask for
agendas for anything that seems iffy. Anything that is a
one on one check in might be better approached as
a quick phone call, So go ahead and make that call.
The goal is to reduce the overall meeting load. Then,

(01:53):
once you're clear on what's staying, figure out what you
need to prepare for. When people get busy, they just
start tromping from one thing to the next, like middle
schoolers changing classes. Here's my two o'clock, my three o'clock,
my four o'clock. This can be a harrowing experience if
you suddenly realize that the three o'clock involves a complicated

(02:14):
pitch to a not entirely friendly audience, or if you're
going to be asked at the two o'clock for your
opinion on a rather lengthy document. So figure out when
you can prepare for anything that requires preparation, and mark
these times on your calendar and finally take a step
back and look at the landscape. Not all meetings for

(02:34):
the week will be set by Monday morning, of course,
but when you see what time is available, you can
decide what time is good for meetings and what isn't.
For instance, if you've got no meetings on Wednesday morning
and two in the afternoon, I'd suggest that if someone
asks to meet on Wednesday, you offer any remaining afternoon
slots that leaves the morning open for individual focused work.

(02:57):
One of the most aggravating parts of organizational life is
that people feel their schedules are chopped up they never
have time to achieve that state of flow. Some of
this is inevitable, but some is self imposed. You don't
have to give Wednesday morning away unless there's a really
good reason. The upside of mapping out your meetings is

(03:18):
that you can approach the week feeling far more confident
and ready for what's to come. You'll steward your energy appropriately,
you'll perform better in the meetings that happen, and there
may be fewer of them, and they'll happen at times
that work better for you. Given how draining meetings can be.
That's really the best possible outcome. So today, approach your

(03:39):
calendar with this strategic spirit, map your meetings for the week,
and see what you can do to make your work
life feel more doable. In the meantime, this is Laura,
Thanks for listening, and here's to succeeding in the New
Corner Office, the New Corner off. This is a production

(04:01):
of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts, visit the I
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