Save Time and Get More Out of Your Meetings 

Are you constantly in business meetings that just seem to drag on forever? Nothing kills productivity like sitting around the conference room while the discussion continues until you can't remember what the starting point was. While not all meetings go this route, it is important for you to know ways to improve your meetings, cut down the time and help all of your employees get back to work so they can continue on with their daily routine.

Ban All Devices

One of the problems with mobile technology is that it is easy to access content on the devices anywhere. You want to remember as many distractions as possible from everyone inside the room. When individuals are not constantly looking up their phones, searching for information on the Internet or just playing solitaire on their phone, they can focus on the meeting at hand and help cut down the amount of time it is going to take to cover all of the subject matter.

Create a Timekeeper

You don't need everyone constantly checking the time (although this probably is going to happen). However, when running the meeting yourself, it is easy to lose track of time and forget exactly how long you are talking for. That is why you need to create a timekeeper inside the meeting. Whether this is your secretary or just someone else nominated during the meeting, it is up to them to keep you abreast on the time and when agreed upon deadlines for time approach.

Cut the Meeting in Half

Chances are, you have stopping and starting points during your meeting. Any meeting is going to have these stop and start points with different subjects and bullet points. Instead of talking for an hour in the meeting, it is far better to cut it into two, 30 minute meetings, spread over two different days. This way, your employees are able to get back to work quickly and easily, without losing a full hour of the day. If the meeting lasts for an hour, it is going to take another 10 minutes or so to get back on track, which completely kills the productivity of those inside of the office.

Breaks

Sometimes there isn't anything you can do about it and it is important to have breaks during the conference. You don't want a meeting to drag on for a few hours, but sometimes, this is what is required of you. Of course, after an hour or two, people are going to significantly lose focus due to the long winded nature of the meeting. When this is happening, or believed to happen, it is best to break up the conference into a few different segments. This way, everyone is able to stay focused on what he is discussions.

Stand Up

Of course, most people are going to sit down rather than stand up. That is why standing up for a meeting is such a good idea. Individuals are going to want to sit down after standing in a small group, so this should help keep the conference inside the office moving. If you don't keep it moving, you are going to find that it simply drags and you are going to lose your concentration and patients with the meeting.

It is very important to keep meetings as short as possible and always working in progression towards completion. Of course, there are different ways it is possible to reduce the time of the meeting, all without reducing the quality of information shared at the meeting. By following these different steps, you should see drastic improvements in your time.

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