If you feel like a particular type of meeting needs more or less time, then adjust the block accordingly. Whatever meetings you hold, group them into blocks depending on your particular schedule.
30-minute meeting in the office to get to know someone or catch up.Here are the types of meetings you might want to book: Those meetings are typically productive and fun, but the first time you are meeting someone, it's more productive to do a call or an actual 30-minute meeting in the office. I am a huge fan of coffee and meals with people I already know. I am not a big fan of introductory coffee meetings, lunches and dinners. I prefer to do these calls on Fridays, when I am usually working from home. Ten minutes is actually a lot of time, if you focus. The reason 10-minute calls work is because people skip BS and get to the point. You can do a Google Hangout or Skype if you prefer to see the person instead of just hearing them. I think 10-minute calls are a great way to initially connect with someone or give someone quick advice. Personally, I am now a big fan of 30-minute meetings and 10-minute calls. Optimize time for different meeting types Do the same thing with calls, and book them all back to back. This way you are not only creating a chunk of time for meetings, you are also creating other blocks of time that you will be able to important work. Do the same thing for in-office meetings. Group meetings and calls into blocksįor example, if you need to have outside meetings, block two and a half days a week for those meetings, and go to the outside meetings only during those times. Related: 101 Time Management Tips to Boost Productivity Every Day 2. Here is a sample calendar I made that illustrates some of the concepts and ideas from this post. For example, if you are working on launching a company, and need to do customer discovery, coding and hiring, then prioritize and block specific times for each activity. Your routine may change through the year, but at any given time it's better to have a plan. Turn your calendar into a bunch of blocks, and put activities into those blocks. Block times for specific activities, and stick with the plan. No matter what you are working on, create a routine. Here are some of the things that help me manage my schedule that you may find helpful: 1. Gradually I learned that planning and following a routine makes a huge difference in how I feel and what I get done. Over the years, whenever I didn't follow this advice, I was stressed and unproductive. Something Lou Gerstner, former CEO of IBM, once said has stuck in my head: "Never let anyone own your schedule." It's simple and obvious, yet genius.