Cancel an unecessary meeting

Last week I agreed to a business lunch meeting on the other side of town.

It took thirty minutes each way and the meeting itself went about an hour. Altogether, I spent two hours chewing the fat and talking about potential business opportunities.

It pretty much ate up half a day, counting drive time.

I could have had a twenty minute phone call and covered the same material -- and saved the day.

For the next few weeks, I'm going to scrutinize every meeting I agree to, how much time the meeting will take and most importantly, if I could accomplish the same thing with a phone call. If I cancel one meeting per week, I'll add back about two days to my business month (that is an extra 10% of my time!).

Recommended: Look at your calendar for next week and find a meeting to cancel and reschedule as a phone call.

Comments

[Kevin]

I would generally agree with this but there is much to be said about a face to face meeting. You said it was a meeting about business opportunity, which I find is almost always done better face to face (and I'm not in sales).

I'm pretty sure you believe that relationship is one of the top things in your business that can increase your business, so maybe the recommendation should be, "Look at your calendar next week and find a meeting that can accomplish the same objective over the phone."

That may be what you were saying, which if so then I whole heartedly (versus part heartedly) agree.

[Red Jello]

That is every day of my life! Phone in the pocket is the only solution to sanity.

[Tim Sanders]

No, seriously, a drive-across-town meeting in LA (Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta) can wreck an entire morning. You've got about 2.5 hours into drive plus meet time and then at least another hour of less-than-productive work that you do around meetings.

Of course, this depends on your vocation. My work is mostly creative (writing, marketing), so I have to work four hours to get one good hour of work done (See my previous post, reference to David Lynch). I don't get that when I leave the office for a cross town meeting. If you are in sales, like I was in the past, this may not be as bad. So, to your comment, you make a good point that "Your Results May Vary."

Give me a full day in my chair and I've got more time to get work done.

[b lorenz]

dude, I understand what you're sayin, ....but "It pretty much ate up half a day, counting drive time."
get real
bl