Comments on: I didn’t get any work done today

By: George

George — Thu, 31 May 2012 21:53:38 +0000

We had a meeting this morning regarding the re design of our Webstore. Meeting was scheduled for 1 hr and 4 and a half later it finished. So after a late lunch the working day was 2 hrs. Need to catch now on my workload.

By: Matt Chatterley

Matt Chatterley — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 06:48:44 +0000

It’s not just meetings! Being a techie-turned-business owner, there are lots of things which I think are ‘bread and butter’ business activities that I have tended to shy away from in lieu of doing ‘real work’. Quite a hard habit to break, but good luck getting into your meetings!

By: Ed

Ed — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 10:41:30 +0000

In an hour long meeting, usually only about 10-15 minutes is useful, the rest is flim flam.

Archie Norman, when MD at Asda, took out all the tables and chairs from the meeting rooms, replacing them with stand up bar tables.

Meetings go a lot quicker when people are standing up!

I tend to let people start meetings on my behalf, get the pleasantries over, then pop in for 10 minutes.

Can’t stand the wasted time otherwise, particularly if someone wants to talk me through their Powerpoint for an hour, when I could flick through it in 30-seconds.

By: Hazel Edmunds

Hazel Edmunds — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 09:44:04 +0000

Much as I agree with Karin H I think you need to be aware of where your strengths are. If you’re hopeless at the “on the business” stuff then hire a commercial manager and continue to work “in”. Some decisions will. of course, still be yours and yours alone to make.
Susan Hallam has worked this division very successfully. I couldn’t which is why I’m freelance and happier than I’ve ever been.

By: Karin H

Karin H — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 09:38:05 +0000

Meetings are part of “working on the business”, coding etc is “working in the business”.

You’re the founder, you need to work ON the business and delegate working IN to your team (they’ll manage ;-))

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 09:30:51 +0000

If you really want test yourself on meetings try doing a video conference over skype when you have all those other screens available to check email, do some coding, etc…

You’ll know you’re in trouble when you dimly realise someone has started talking about a volcano that’s about to erupt in your neighbourhood… because your team have realised you’re not paying attention and there’s a betting pool on how long before you realise they’ve caught you. 🙂

That said, meetings are to be avoided if you realise you’re enjoying them because you get to talk lots…

By: Dijitul

Dijitul — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 09:26:35 +0000

Nothing beats a good meeting, as hard as it can be when you return to your computer to find a list of unread emails and missed calls, meetings are worth their weight in gold. If I had a PA I would spend more and more time having them 🙂

Dave