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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is that following up after a meeting is

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Speaker 1: a distinct task from attending the meeting. You need to

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Speaker 1: schedule time for following up if it's going to get done.

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Speaker 1: From studying time logs, I know that so many knowledge

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Speaker 1: workers spend the bulk of their days in meetings. It

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Speaker 1: is easy to wind up going from meeting to meeting,

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Speaker 1: like middle schoolers changing classes. You go to your two o'clock,

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Speaker 1: your three o'clock, you're four o'clock without thinking through the

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Speaker 1: implications and next steps from any of it. This is

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Speaker 1: problematic because for a meeting to be worthwhile, it needs

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Speaker 1: to have an impact on the world outside the meeting.

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Speaker 1: That means that most participants will need to do something

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Speaker 1: afterwards to make sure the meeting has achieved its purpose.

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Speaker 1: The only way to make sure this happens is to

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Speaker 1: schedule time for it. Otherwise you won't follow up in

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Speaker 1: a timely fashion, or you might forget until the next meeting.

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Speaker 1: There are two general ways to do this following up.

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Speaker 1: One option is to schedule fifteen minutes or so after

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Speaker 1: each meeting as a follow up block. Increase or decrease

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Speaker 1: the length of the follow up block, depending on what

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Speaker 1: seems necessary for different types of meetings. If you get

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Speaker 1: to the end of your allocated time but haven't finished

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Speaker 1: all of your follow up tasks, add the specific tasks

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Speaker 1: you haven't done yet to your to do list for

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Speaker 1: the day or the week. I personally like this idea

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Speaker 1: because following up immediately afterwards means you've got momentum. You

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Speaker 1: also won't forget what you agreed to do, your to

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Speaker 1: do list won't keep growing during the day. Plus, this

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Speaker 1: rule has the side effect of meaning you can't fill

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Speaker 1: a whole day with meetings, so you will have to

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Speaker 1: be more judicious about which meetings happen. That sounds like

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Speaker 1: a pretty good idea to me. However, I know that

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Speaker 1: a lot of people view a meeting as an hour

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Speaker 1: and the next hour is fair game for something else.

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Speaker 1: If there is no convincing you otherwise, or there's no

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Speaker 1: way to avoid it, then you need to do something

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Speaker 1: else to make sure you don't forget or lose urgency.

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Speaker 1: Probably the best way to solve this problem is to

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Speaker 1: add things to your task list during the meeting itself.

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Speaker 1: You still need to schedule another time later for follow up,

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Speaker 1: but at least you won't be a danger of forgetting

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Speaker 1: anything as you race off to your next meeting. But

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Speaker 1: and I am serious here, the meeting follow up time

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Speaker 1: still needs to happen. If you have more than one

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Speaker 1: meeting every work day, then meeting follow up should probably

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Speaker 1: be a recurring task on each day's to do list schedule.

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Speaker 1: Sometime maybe an hour that you have opened later in

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Speaker 1: the day, or forty five minutes after the last meeting

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Speaker 1: has ended. To go back through your meeting notes, either

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Speaker 1: do the tasks you have written down or schedule a

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Speaker 1: future time for any major tasks. You can review the

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Speaker 1: notes as a whole and think through any additional follow

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Speaker 1: up activities that might be valuable. Whichever approach you take,

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Speaker 1: the point is that you need to treat following up

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Speaker 1: from a meeting as a distinct task from going to

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Speaker 1: the meeting, because it is is Simply having attended the

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Speaker 1: meeting probably doesn't mean you are done with that meeting,

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Speaker 1: So have a plan for what you need to do

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Speaker 1: and when you will get it done. And now a

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Speaker 1: related tip, if you are leading a meeting, you can

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Speaker 1: help ensure the team follows up by walking through the

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Speaker 1: expected next steps. You can invite people to reflect back

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Speaker 1: what needs to happen between now and our next meeting

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Speaker 1: or something like that. Then, as attendees reflect on what

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Speaker 1: they need to do, you can make sure their lists

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Speaker 1: tie in with yours. Calling attention to the fact that

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Speaker 1: there are follow ups might nudge your attendees to make

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Speaker 1: time to deal with these matters, or at least one

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Speaker 1: can hope. In any case, during the week ahead, make

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Speaker 1: a plan for handling meeting follow up tasks. When we

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Speaker 1: follow up on meetings, we ensure that all the plans

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Speaker 1: and ideas generated during the meetings do what they are

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Speaker 1: supposed to do. Otherwise we are just wasting time and

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Speaker 1: we will never get that time back. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

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Speaker 1: the moose of our time. Hey everybody, I'd love to

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Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

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Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's b E the

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Speaker 1: number four then Breakfast p o D. You can also

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Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcast at I

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Speaker 1: heeart media dot Com that before Breakfast is spelled out

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Speaker 1: with all the letters, thanks so much, should I look

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Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production

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Speaker 1: of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. Yea.