From the course: Time Management Tips

Reduce interruptions with 1:1 meetings

From the course: Time Management Tips

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Reduce interruptions with 1:1 meetings

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- Establishing a consistent one-to-one meeting schedule is a critical tool to improving time management. Now, I do have a course on the library about holding effective one-to-one meetings, yet many people wonder why even have these meetings at all? The biggest reason is that most people in the workplace are treating each other like human vending machines. They're constantly peppering each other with quick questions, and these quick questions have a lot of switching cost. Also, it's getting in the way of people doing their own critical thinking. Instead, what you want to do is be able to focus on your most important work, your most valuable activities, and then have a set time to hold those meetings. Now, how do we hold those meetings? In general, the idea is that you ask them your questions, and they ask you their questions. It's that simple. But the idea is that we need to do it on a consistent basis, that both of you decide, hey, we don't want to interrupt each other anymore, let's set a consistent time on our calendars and commit to that specific time. Then, at that time, I'm going to bring my list. For instance, if I'm meeting with Lauren, I'm going to bring my one-to-one Lauren list, and she's going to bring her one-to-one Dave list. When we come to the meeting, the agenda is simple. I'm going to ask her what questions do you have for me? She goes first, asks me all of her quick questions. I respond to them, and then we switch roles. She says, what questions do you have for me? And I go through my questions. The goal at the end of this conversation is that we agree on specific actions that we're going to take. Try to avoid vague statements such as I'll get that to you sometime next week. But instead, make it specific, as I'll get it to you by 3:00 on Tuesday of next week. Using one-to-one meetings in this way can become a powerful ally in helping you be more focused and get more done.

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