Time Management Expert, Event Speaker: Mark Lamendola
 

Time Tips: Meetings Tip #2, Effective Agendas

One reason meetings are normally not very effective is their planning is defective. The cure for this is to put forth an effective agenda.

Every version of Microsoft Word since 6.0 has included an agenda template that allows you to assign actual clock minutes to each agenda item. This approach assumes that, if an item is important enough to put on the agenda in the first place, it's important enough to have its own time slot. This approach works only if you stick strictly to the schedule. If there's more subject than time in the actual meeting, simply table any leftover to an agenda item called "Tabled items."

Using dedicated time slots within the meeting confers many advantages. Among them:

  • You set expectations. Doing that is the key to achieving the desired outcome.
     
  • People understand that there is only so much time for each agenda item, so they are far less likely to beat a subject to death while the clock is ticking away on the remaining items.
     
  • You can actually address each item in the agenda, without needing to extend the meeting, give some items a rush treatment, or drop items that you put in the agenda for a reason.
     
  • The Chair doesn't need an "excuse" to cut off long-winded, pointless, time-wasting discussions. The agenda itself provides the reason. This eliminates the problem of needing to accommodate windbags without offending them.
     
  • The structure makes it easy for the Chair to take the required notes and the Secretary to take the Minutes. Simply copy the agenda into a new file, and type what's necessary as you go.
     
  • You will find that you accomplish more with less time used in each meeting.
 
A great way many businesses are managing time is using software. There are many forms of time and attendance software which allows managers to track and monitor employees time usage.
 

More thoughts on time management

The phrase "time management" is an unfortunate language quirk. You can't really manage time. It just is. You can't gain time, create time, or even lose time. Time is what it is, regardless of what we do.

It would be better to say "time allocation" or "activity management" "time usage" or some other phraseology to indicate that it's not time itself you're managing but how you use the time that exists. But we'll use the common terminology here to avoid confusion.

Some things time management is not:

  • Being more efficient. Suppose you become very efficient at making buggy whips. Does this fact mean you are managing your time well?
  • Getting more done in a given amount of time. Getting more done of what? And to what degree of quality? If you rake the leaves on a lawn from one side to the other all day long, does that mean you are a good time manager?
  • Being able to juggle multiple priorities. Instead of juggling priorities, assign priorities. First tend to the urgent things, then the most important things.
  • Mastering multi-tasking. This concept conflicts with what we know about the human brain. If you buy into this self-defeating, time-wasting, quality-killing ideology, you might also be interested in practicing solo flight by flapping your arms frantically.
  • Working faster. No, this mode is how you make mistakes that you subsequently have to spend more time fixing.

Some things good time management involves:

  • Deciding what to do. This is trickier than it sounds. Which is why there are time management experts.
  • Deciding what not to do. This is even trickier than deciding what to do. Which is why there are time managers and why discipline is a huge, huge factor in accomplishing this.
  • Deciding what to do when, and in what order. In essence, prioritization.
  • Determining the scope, goals, and metrics for each activity you undertake. In this area, we the find most room for improvement. Precision here allows you to avoid waste on the one hand, and falling short on the other.
  • Planning out the work, task, project, or activity such that you determine the necessary steps to quality completion. That is, what must you do to meet the intended goal and quality metrics?
  • Identifying unnecessary steps. Get this right, and you can cut your wasted hours significantly.
  • Figuring out what resources to use. Not all resources applicable to a task are equal. Picking the right tool for the job saves time, improves quality, and makes life less stressful.

We've highlighted only some of the factors involved in good time management. We actually teach extreme time management, which is a methodology that allows you to make effective use of your time almost second nature. You don't need a complicated system. Our system puts many of the variables on autopilot, so you have more time to do what you need to do. Our system goes way beyond most other systems in results, yet is far simpler.

Contact us for a presentation to your organization: comments @ mindconnection.com (remove the spaces after pasting into your e-mail client's "to" box.