Everyone knows someone who tends to go a little overboard with the meetings. While meetings can be productive uses of time, they can also do the opposite. Here are 5 ways to successfully implement a meeting-free day.
Commit
It won’t work if you start compromising on this day. Meeting-free means no meetings at all and in general interactions should be kept to a minimum — no lunch meetings or quick catch-ups, as this is a day to focus on your workload, be productive, and see a change in your routine.
Make Meetings More Valuable
If you are reducing the amount of meetings you are having then it stands to reason that you should turbocharge the meetings you are having, making them more valuable and effective.
Plan Your Day
You have an entire day to tick things off your to-do list, so use it wisely! How are you going to spend your time and what is worth focusing your efforts on? Try to get tasks done that take a long time and a lot of concentration as well as those that are a high priority.
Ignore The Routine
Make sure you aren’t wasting your meeting-free day on emails and routine tasks that you can do every other day. Set your out of office reply or make sure that everyone knows to call you for anything urgent. Emails can wait until the end of the day!
Be Transparent
Tell others of your intentions or if you are a manager, make this the team norm so that you aren’t fighting requests to allocate your time. Be honest and explain that this is a meeting-free day, that you are unavailable during this day, and that you can schedule for any other time during the week. This will help you to avoid hesitating or giving in as well as feeling like you need to make up an excuse to justify it.
Do you have meeting-free days? How do you ensure they go uninterrupted? Let us know by commenting below!
