I used to finish a day of work thinking, âwhat did I even get done todayâŠâ often because of how many meetings I attended. I sat in half of them probably spacing out or doing work while someone else was talking.
Then I realized, can I just not go to this meeting?
Turns out the default for a lot of teams is to invite everyone who might be relevant to a meeting.
So before you accept an invite ask yourself, do I really need to be here?
So thinking back to how we start our workday, we want to know the #1 task we need to get done for the day. If a meeting does not move that goal forward, we probably shouldnât go (this of course excludes social events)!
If youâre not 100% sure you can skip the meeting, reach out to your manager and ask if that meeting is more important than making progress on your goal. Chances are, theyâll much prefer you working on your main goal and be happy to dismiss you from the meeting.
Working smarter and not harder is all about being extremely precious with your time, youâll realize the more you respect your time the more others will respect your time as well.
This weekâs action: Pick one meeting from your calendar this week that you donât find useful to you and donât go.
Let me know what meeting you removed and how your team/manager responded!
Thanks for reading,
Eden
P.S. My co-founder and I are working on ways to make sure people get what they want out of their careers, check out thecareernavi.com if youâd like to see our progress!
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