The other day I read the great “Two Simple Secrets to Starting Every Meeting on Time”. Here @sabinanawaz presents two simple rules on “how to save time in meetings and be even more productive”:
- Meet for 45 minutes instead of an hour.
- Start meetings at quarter past the hour.
One could say I’ve used the first rule for quite some time, but the meetings were set for 50 minutes. This has worked really well, but, after reading Sabina Nawaz’s post, I realise that the second rule gives extra room for preparation. Therefore, I’d like to add a third thought to the list:
- Use 15 minutes of prep time. As facilitator of the meeting you might need time to prepare; e.g. the room, projector, computer, and/or yourself. So, book the room/venue for the whole hour, use the first 15 minutes for your own preparations, and the following 45 to hold the actual meeting. Technically this might mean you'll have to make two bookings, but it will allow you to be sure the time before the meeting starting quarter past will not be occupied by someone else's meeting.
Example of the two-booking-solution.
Heartbeat
Following a heartbeat in meetings and the culture surrounding them will help in focusing on the task at hand. Even though a meeting is scheduled for two or more hours one can easily find the heartbeat in 15 + 45 for each hour, i.e. once the first 45 minutes of meeting has passed it’s time for a 15 minute break. In longer meetings the breaks and the importance of these breaks tend to be forgotten. I will elaborate more on rules of the meet in a later post.