We understand the problem. The more successful you become, the less time you have because you are already dealing with important tasks. More start to pile up and that leaves little room for anything else, especially UNPRODUCTIVE meetings. These are time drainers and could actually be spent doing other things, while solving the problems in other meetings.
If you accept just a few in the beginning, you’ve opened up the potential for an endless barrage of useless meeting after useless meeting. It is not a very good way to spend your time, especially if you’re trying to make some money. Attending meetings that have no purpose are the cause of your own personal time slipping away, where productivity drops massively.
Don’t fret however, there is some good news. You need to start becoming more assertive in your dealings and simply saying no to meetings that aren’t worth your time. This article will explain 4 different types of professional meetings that you should avoid. By the way, you should always go to your social meetings, that’s just not cool.
Read on to find out what they are!
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Your Friend From College or a Loose Colleague
These are meetings that many professionals have stated is the worst waste of their time, and by far the most prevalent across the average. If your friend from college wants to meet and catch up then that’s fantastic, but you really shouldn’t mix business with pleasure. You want to say yes, it’s understandable, but just don’t.
The same goes for any friends of friends or people you don’t know very well as they will most likely be a waste of your time once again. If it is insisted further then organize a pre-meeting. Email introduction, Skype or phone calls are useful for this but keep it to less than 10 minutes. The point is to waste as little time as possible!
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‘Advice’ Meetings
It’s great that someone respects you enough to as you for some professional advice due to your success, but there is no point having a meeting about it. With every form of communication available to us these days, it is absolutely ridiculous to hold a face-to-face, time consuming, ‘advice’ meeting. It wouldn’t be a meeting then would it? It’s more like a mentorship session! Now it is great to help as many people as possible, but don’t do it if it costs YOU money. Utilize other forms of giving advice and save your meetings for something that is actually important.
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Last Minute Cancellations
You’ve scheduled the time out of your hectic diary to have a meting with someone. You have that 30 minutes (or more) booked out to focus solely on the task at hand. Then you get a message less than 5 minutes before the meeting informing you the other party can’t make it. This is the sign that you should never wok with this person again because if they can cancel on you last minute, with no credible or reasonable explanation, then they are going to do it over and over again. They have no respect for you and are kind of spitting in your face, when you think about it.
If this happens to you then don’t reschedule meetings with these people. Simply tell them that they are not a good fit to work together and continue on your way, You time will thank you for it!
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‘Blind’ Meetings
Going on a blind date because your friend thinks you guys would make a great couple is okay, if you trust your friend but organizing a blind meeting is a big no-no! If your friend has sent your email to one of their friends (and they were clearly not supposed to do so) then you may receive emails from either them, or your friend, asking for a meeting (they don’t usually say why). These meetings are completely unproductive, as meetings are meant to be organized beforehand. Your friends should always ask you if they can give your email out, or if you would be interested in meeting them first. Again, it’s a matter of respect and how you handle it speaks volumes.
If once again, your friends are insisting on this meeting then see Number 2 on how to handle this. Simply use all of the communication tools at your disposal to have a pre-meeting and see if they are worth it. Remember to only keep it down to 10 minutes or less; your time is precious.
