Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is that following up after a meeting is
Speaker 1: a distinct task from attending the meeting. You need to
Speaker 1: schedule time for following up if it's going to get done.
Speaker 1: From studying time logs, I know that so many knowledge
Speaker 1: workers spend the bulk of their days in meetings. It
Speaker 1: is easy to wind up going from meeting to meeting,
Speaker 1: like middle schoolers changing classes. You go to your two o'clock,
Speaker 1: your three o'clock, you're four o'clock without thinking through the
Speaker 1: implications and next steps from any of it. This is
Speaker 1: problematic because for a meeting to be worthwhile, it needs
Speaker 1: to have an impact on the world outside the meeting.
Speaker 1: That means that most participants will need to do something
Speaker 1: afterwards to make sure the meeting has achieved its purpose.
Speaker 1: The only way to make sure this happens is to
Speaker 1: schedule time for it. Otherwise you won't follow up in
Speaker 1: a timely fashion, or you might forget until the next meeting.
Speaker 1: There are two general ways to do this following up.
Speaker 1: One option is to schedule fifteen minutes or so after
Speaker 1: each meeting as a follow up block. Increase or decrease
Speaker 1: the length of the follow up block, depending on what
Speaker 1: seems necessary for different types of meetings. If you get
Speaker 1: to the end of your allocated time but haven't finished
Speaker 1: all of your follow up tasks, add the specific tasks
Speaker 1: you haven't done yet to your to do list for
Speaker 1: the day or the week. I personally like this idea
Speaker 1: because following up immediately afterwards means you've got momentum. You
Speaker 1: also won't forget what you agreed to do, your to
Speaker 1: do list won't keep growing during the day. Plus, this
Speaker 1: rule has the side effect of meaning you can't fill
Speaker 1: a whole day with meetings, so you will have to
Speaker 1: be more judicious about which meetings happen. That sounds like
Speaker 1: a pretty good idea to me. However, I know that
Speaker 1: a lot of people view a meeting as an hour
Speaker 1: and the next hour is fair game for something else.
Speaker 1: If there is no convincing you otherwise, or there's no
Speaker 1: way to avoid it, then you need to do something
Speaker 1: else to make sure you don't forget or lose urgency.
Speaker 1: Probably the best way to solve this problem is to
Speaker 1: add things to your task list during the meeting itself.
Speaker 1: You still need to schedule another time later for follow up,
Speaker 1: but at least you won't be danger of forgetting anything
Speaker 1: as you race off to your next meeting. But and
Speaker 1: I am serious here, the meeting follow up time still
Speaker 1: needs to happen. If you have more than one meeting
Speaker 1: every work day, then meeting follow up should probably be
Speaker 1: a recurring task on each day's to do list schedule.
Speaker 1: Sometime maybe an hour that you have opened later in
Speaker 1: the day or forty five minutes after the last meeting
Speaker 1: has ended. To go back through your meeting notes, either
Speaker 1: do the tasks you have written down or schedule a
Speaker 1: future time for any major tasks. You can review the
Speaker 1: notes as a whole and think through any additional follow
Speaker 1: up activities that might be valuable. Whichever approach you take,
Speaker 1: the point is that you need to treat following up
Speaker 1: from a meeting as a distinct task from going to
Speaker 1: the meeting, because it is simply having attended the meeting
Speaker 1: probably doesn't mean you are done with that meeting, So
Speaker 1: have a plan for what you need to do and
Speaker 1: when you will get it done. And now a related tip,
Speaker 1: if you are leading a meeting, you can help ensure
Speaker 1: the team follows up by walking through the expected next steps.
Speaker 1: You can invite people to reflect back what needs to
Speaker 1: happen between now and our next meeting or something like that. Then,
Speaker 1: as attendees reflect on what they need to do, you
Speaker 1: can make sure their lists tie in with yours. Calling
Speaker 1: attention to the fact that there are follow ups might
Speaker 1: nudge your attendees to make time to deal with these matters,
Speaker 1: or at least one can hope. In any case, during
Speaker 1: the week ahead, make a plan for handling meeting follow
Speaker 1: up tasks. When we follow up on meetings, we ensure
Speaker 1: that all the plans and ideas generated during the meetings
Speaker 1: do what they are supposed to do. Otherwise we are
Speaker 1: just wasting time and we will never get that time back.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the moose of our time. Hey everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod
Speaker 1: that's b E the number four then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: Podcast at I Heeart media dot Com that before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: should I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts
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