If you are living with the “live every day like it’s Friday” mentality like Mark and Ben are, you know how this shift in perspective can boost your energy level and help you find the good things in each day, seeing every problem as an opportunity to do something right. This perspective carries over into many aspects of your working life and is especially pertinent to the implementation of effective meetings. Maybe you have never been a part of a meeting that you would define as “effective”, so here are 5 ways to alter the paradigm and make every meeting more productive:

1. Have a goal for the meeting – Define the reason why the meeting is taking place and include a brief agenda and action items in the meeting invite so all participants are on the same page.
2. Keep meetings small – Be intentional with who is invited to each meeting, only including those who absolutely need to be there. Identify the key stakeholders in the project or initiative and make sure they can be there, rescheduling the meeting if necessary.
3. Avoid conference calls – When you can’t see each other, it is easy for people to get distracted and difficult to gauge people’s genuine reactions to things other people are saying. Instead, try to schedule in-person or video conference meetings when possible.
4. Be present – Institute a rule that all devices should be in “do not disturb” mode and/or face down on the table to reduce the number of distractions. If you are not distracted, it is likely that the meeting will conclude faster and you will be able to get back on your devices quickly anyway.
5. Clearly define the action items – At the end of the meeting, discuss the action items and delineate the responsibilities for those items to the appropriate people. Set timelines for these tasks and go ahead and set up the next follow-up meeting before you all leave the room.

Your action items after listening to this episode are to define the purpose of your next meeting and split up tasks at the end of that meeting to see how much this improves the effectiveness of the meeting.

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