One of the things I'm sure we all noticed when our workplaces were disrupted and moved into the remote working world was either a sudden increase in meetings or a sudden realization of just how many meetings we have. The move to online media like Teams or Zoom meant that fewer meetings were happening ad hoc and more stuff was being scheduled. But this didn't stop people being trigger-happy with meeting requests. There were a number of meetings I had in the spring and early summer that were one-hour blocks scheduled and remarkably little got done. So I'm instituting some policies for myself and for those who want to schedule a meeting. This includes 1:1 meetings. In fact, most importantly for 1:1 meetings in some cases.
Rule 1: Have an agenda. Don't schedule a meeting without having an agenda (or at least promising one and following through). Very best practice: suggest the meeting with a draft agenda. Rule 2: Share the agenda with meeting participants. Don't keep it to yourself, but at least leave the participants half an hour to go over your notes. Earlier is better. More gets done when less time is wasted introducing the agenda items. Rule 3: Follows from David Allen's GTD principles: don't end a meeting without deciding on a list of next actions and agreeing who will undertake them and by when. The main purpose of the meeting should be deciding on the action steps: whether they're needed and what they are. I think these are reasonable plans for all involved in a meeting. It keeps stress levels down and productivity levels up. Things are about to get really busy for everyone in academia, and a bit of advance planning will go a long way to meeting your goals and hitting those deadlines.
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Martin d brazeauPalaeontologist, fieldworker, sometimes phylogenetic programmer. Transplanted Canadian in UK. All views are my own. How to pronounce my name? Rhymes with "bureau" or "chateau". He/him/his. Archives
December 2022
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