This week I have been trying out a new approach to meetings. Instead of using up the entire time in the calendar for the meeting itself, I am trying to keep the meeting a bit shorter (45 minutes in the case of a previously 1 hour meeting). I then use the 10 minutes afterwards for the immediate follow-up actions that came out of the meeting while the person I met with is still there. Often that involves sending emails, eg to introduce the person I was just meeting with to someone else.
I have found this to be very effective so far as I don’t wind up with a pile of things at the end of the day. Also, often as I try to take the follow-on I come up with a clarifying question and with the person still here that doesn’t involve yet another email roundtrip. What about the remaining 5 minutes? Those give me a chance to take care of whatever needs quick attention before the next meeting (again in order to avoid too many things piling up).
