No Agenda. No Meeting. Never attend a meeting without an agenda to protect from timewasting Dereks and Karens

No Agenda, No Meeting. 

Have you ever been in a meeting and it felt like a total waste of time. We have all been there, the meeting where Keith from Accounts mutters on for ages, Jenny from Marketing talks and talks and talks and talks and after 90 minutes another session is booked in the diary without anything being accomplished.

It is a total waste of life and could be the time that you had spent on prospective clients.

As Dave Barry once described meetings: “Meetings are an addictive, highly self-indulgent activity that corporations and other large organisations habitually engage in only because they cannot actually masturbate.”

Which, is a tad rude. However, he really does capture the sentiment behind all the wasted times in meetings. So what is a great way to ensure that you only have meetings that are really productive?

Ensure that every meeting has an agenda. Now, within some organisations, this will be harder to accomplish than others, but quite simply, decline any conference that does not have a plan.

That way you will avoid those meetings that are destined to be time wasters. If you cannot prevent the meeting due to this excuse merely create the agenda. That way you will look professional and will keep the meeting on track. All schedules should only have three points.

I’ve covered this in another life hack about why you should never have a meeting without an agenda. Now, in this one, we will talk about why every schedule should only have three points.

That’s all you need. Three points. The three points are the problem, the discussion of the solutions, and then the decision on the resolution and who is accountable.

So essentially three points.

1. What is the problem?
2. What are the potential solutions?
3. What is the decision? Who will implement it? 

So it’s a problem, it’s the solution, it’s the decision.

That way, you go in with a formulated problem that everyone’s got to discuss, you come up together with a solution, and then you make the decision on which solution is best and who is accountable.

That way, you get an efficient meeting and actually you’re there to talk about moving things forward instead of just having a conversation.

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