4 ms·
I think one of the things that I find hard to do wrt to time management is whether to take meetings or not. I've tried both ends: both taking all meetings, and
by iamwil 14y ago
I think one of the things that I find hard to do wrt to time management is whether to take meetings or not. I've tried both ends: both taking all meetings, and taking no meetings. I've found that taking all meetings, the vast majority of them aren't useful (to them or to me). In taking no meetings, I was able to focus, but I do wonder what could have been.
So where's the middle ground? Usually, I find that my default stance is 'no'. I have work to do, and I have to guard my time. So I'll only take meetings that are interesting. But I think after reading this, I'll have to also add 'need genuine help' to the criteria.
I think something that Stammy could have added under "Workdays are Sacred" is how to say 'no'. What if it's a warm intro to someone that doesn't heed genuine help?
- trhaynes 14y agoHow about just telling everyone that wants to meet that you work from (for example) some coffee shop from 3-5 on Thursdays? Then you can work or meet with the people that come. And nobody is "scheduled" so if three people show up then things will just work out. Or maybe you'll introduce them to each other if the meeting isn't useful. I've heard people call this "office hours" too.
- j45 14y agoThis can work well. I usually take Fridays to do this kind of thing, or maybe Monday mornings if it fits better.
- MaxGabriel 14y agoThat would also have the advantage of letting you get more feedback. Maybe websites don't have this problem as much, because the interactions are more standard and it's easier to gather data, but seeing 3 people use your iPhone app is a pretty big data point for UI.
- j45 14y agoIf you guard your time you won't make connections that make your limited time multiply through the help of others. Likewise you can probably do a little for someone that would help them a lot forward. Don't take meeting when you have work to do. If someone is asking for a meeting so someone can be a witness to their existence, push it to the weekend and take only the most interesting. If there's something concrete you can fill them in on, or be helped with, be concise, clear and direct about it. There's a lot about startups that you can, and should be learning on your own all the time. Work meetings can be doubled up during events, lunch, or coffee. Keep it on topic and on time. Getting together after work is an option too, it doesn't interrupt working time.
- frogtown 14y agomeetings should have a purpose and a good manager guides the meeting towards that purpose and minimizes the superfluous. if people are generally bad communicators or a poor self-motivators, meetings can be a good way of keeping a project moving forward. managers that want meetings simply because that is what they are supposed to do are not giving enough consideration to everyone's time. sometimes a meeting can simply be a managers way of giving an over worked team a break (hey let's watch this TED talk) but the pointlessness there, again, has its purpose.
- shazow 14y agoMy biggest problem is meeting when the other party is subtly trying to hire me. I love meeting people, I love brainstorming ideas and revenue paths, I love hearing new perspectives, I love going out of my way to try to help people. When someone pings me for a meeting, I get excited and rearrange my schedule to get together. Maybe I can introduce them to a key contact, or help with some specific engineering challenge, or point out an unconsidered customer acquisition path. It's amazingly disappointing when I finally ask "so, how can I help you?" the answer is "join our engineering team." If I could filter out all meetings that are secret recruiting initiatives, I'd be a happier person.
- Andrex 14y agoInteresting, I've never heard of a startup founder being regularly solicited for meetings with people from other companies. Is that normal?