Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to try a double header. If you are
Speaker 1: meeting with the same person or people twice in short succession,
Speaker 1: consolidate both agendas into one meeting, make it a double header,
Speaker 1: and free up some uninterrupted time for something else. In
Speaker 1: many organizations, it can be quite common to meet with
Speaker 1: the same people twice in a week or so. Maybe
Speaker 1: you are collaborating with the same people on multiple projects,
Speaker 1: or maybe you are working on a client project together,
Speaker 1: but you are also jointly running a brown bag lunch
Speaker 1: series for the department. You know how this goes. What
Speaker 1: tends to happen is that we view all our projects
Speaker 1: as completely separate, and when we need to meet with
Speaker 1: people for each project, the meetings get scheduled separately. This
Speaker 1: certainly happens when we are scheduling our own meetings, but
Speaker 1: it happens with assistance too, because they are probably thinking
Speaker 1: of projects separately as well. Have I set up meetings
Speaker 1: for a project A and project B this week? Great,
Speaker 1: I am doing what I am supposed to do, So
Speaker 1: what winds up happening? Is that you and Bob and
Speaker 1: Kara may be working together on Project A and Project B,
Speaker 1: and you may have a meeting about each project in
Speaker 1: a given week. Maybe you and Kara are also working
Speaker 1: together on Project C, so you have a third meeting
Speaker 1: with her. You are spending a lot of time with Kara.
Speaker 1: That is not a bad thing. But as I point
Speaker 1: out in my forthcoming book, Tranquility by Tuesday, if you
Speaker 1: plan your life in weeks, you will see this more clearly.
Speaker 1: As you survey your landscape for the upcoming you will
Speaker 1: see that you have multiple meetings with the same people.
Speaker 1: Recognizing that you have more than one meeting with the
Speaker 1: same people creates an opportunity to consolidate these get togethers.
Speaker 1: You can do a double header most of the time.
Speaker 1: If you consolidate meetings, you won't need the full amount
Speaker 1: of time you scheduled for the two individual meetings. Say
Speaker 1: you have two hour long meetings with Bob and Kara,
Speaker 1: one about Project DAY and one about Project B. You
Speaker 1: will probably be able to conduct the business of both
Speaker 1: those meetings in an hour and a half. At most,
Speaker 1: it will be an hour and forty five minutes. It's
Speaker 1: pretty easy to see why every single meeting exacts transaction costs.
Speaker 1: There is often time spent waiting for late comers. There
Speaker 1: is the time spent getting organized and chit chatting. In
Speaker 1: a consolidated meeting, all of this happens once, not twice
Speaker 1: or more. You may need less time for wrap up
Speaker 1: at the end of the meeting too, since you aren't
Speaker 1: actually parting at the end of the first chunk of material,
Speaker 1: you are plowing right into the second matter. What's more,
Speaker 1: meetings tend to expand or contract to fill the available time,
Speaker 1: so if you have an hour and a half budgeted
Speaker 1: for this double header, you will probably make it work.
Speaker 1: So by consolidating the two meetings, you end up saving
Speaker 1: fifteen to thirty minutes. Even better, you save yourself the
Speaker 1: individual transaction costs of stopping other work and then restarting
Speaker 1: it afterwards. Your schedule will be less chopped up, so
Speaker 1: you will have more time available for what productivity expert
Speaker 1: cal Newport calls deep work. Now, as you study your schedule,
Speaker 1: you may find that some of the meetings you can
Speaker 1: consolidate are recurring meetings. That means that the few minutes
Speaker 1: it takes to adjust your schedules and find a consolidated
Speaker 1: meeting time. Once we'll pay off in less total time
Speaker 1: and meetings every single week. That is a definite win.
Speaker 1: So if we envision our scenario with Bob and Kara,
Speaker 1: you could picture that the three of you do a
Speaker 1: double header on project day and Project B. Then you
Speaker 1: say goodbye to Bob and you and Kara stick around
Speaker 1: to chat about Project C. Even more efficiencies are achieved.
Speaker 1: One easy entry point to this scheduling concept is to
Speaker 1: do a double header after any all staff or all
Speaker 1: department meetings that you may be required to attend. If
Speaker 1: you need to do a weekly meeting with Mary, and
Speaker 1: you and Mary are both at the department meeting, you
Speaker 1: can stack the meeting with Mary right after it ends.
Speaker 1: That way, if the meeting ends early, you and Mary
Speaker 1: can start early rather than kicking around for ten minutes
Speaker 1: looking for something else small to do. Or if the
Speaker 1: meeting runs late, neither of you will be inconvenienced waiting
Speaker 1: for the other. Now, to be clear, double headers are
Speaker 1: about rescheduling existing meetings. I am not suggesting setting up
Speaker 1: new meetings. In general, most people need to be in
Speaker 1: far fewer meetings than they are currently in. I suggest
Speaker 1: taking a good look at whether all your recurring meetings
Speaker 1: actually need to happen. But if they do, a double
Speaker 1: header can save some time. It may require a little
Speaker 1: work to figure out the logistics, but you know this
Speaker 1: isn't rocket science. If a different person is leading project A,
Speaker 1: then is leading Project B. Just switch who is leading
Speaker 1: the meeting in the middle. Agree to the agenda in
Speaker 1: advance so everything is adequately covered. But hopefully you are
Speaker 1: doing that already with your meetings. If necessary, you could
Speaker 1: switch which project comes first week to week in case
Speaker 1: there is any concern about people feeling fresh or trying
Speaker 1: to rush through things. But given the benefits, I think
Speaker 1: it is worth a little trial and error to make
Speaker 1: it work. If you try a double header meeting, I
Speaker 1: would love to hear how it goes. You can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at before Breakfast Pod that's b E the
Speaker 1: number four. Then Breakfast Pod You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com
Speaker 1: that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters,
Speaker 1: thanks so much. Should I look forward to staying in touch.
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