I’m sure we are all in agreement, time is a precious resource.
For this reason it frustrates me no end to be part of a meeting when the organisers have no idea how much time they are wasting.
I’m irritated by phone calls that should take one minute but are delayed by the person’s inability to get to the point.
I also dislike day long training sessions that could have been done in a hour or hour long status updates that could have been communicated in a task management tool.
Now while I might sound like Grumpy dwarf, It’s necessary to remember that an hour wasted each day, adds up to almost three and a half days a year, wasted unnecessarily.
Wasted Time
Think about what this extra time could mean to you on a personal level, less stress and frustration and more time to spend on the things that matter to you. Then think about the professional cost of wasted time and the global impact of unnecessary and inefficient meetings.
This is why when I came across Do.com my ears cocked up, a potential solution to the age old problem of inefficient meetings.
Now I suppose I should first state it’s limitations.
It is not going to put a sock in the mouth of the annoying colleague who has an inability to shut up. Neither will it make your team more creative, interesting or fun to be with but it can do many things that will reduce stress, enhance clarity and enable more focus and efficiency.
Do.com tackles the three biggest meeting inefficiencies
1. Before: Lack of Planning
2. During: Inability to stay on track
3. After: Lack of Follow up
1. Before the Meeting
You would expect in this advanced age of communications and technology that every meeting you attend would be preceded with an agenda. Spoiler alert: Many are not. There are countless organisations that continue to hold meetings without an agenda. The lack of agenda allows time wasters to waste time, ramblers to ramble and meeting hijackers free reign of the meeting. With a well written agenda you deliver focus, clarity and transparency. With Do.com the meeting agenda is set in advance and attendees can collaborate on the agenda. This helps focus the attendees and gets them thinking about the agenda items in advance.
2. During the Meeting
To make meetings more efficient and to ensure actions agreed are actually delivered on, Do.com allows you to work through the agenda items in real time assigning follow ups during the meeting and making sure actions agreed are immediately recorded. It also has a timer that ensures the meeting is kept on track and minimum time is invested in all meetings.
3. After the Meeting
Once the meeting is done, all attendees will receive a meeting summary by email, outlining follow ups and outcomes of the meeting. By logging into Do.com you can see follow-ups from all meetings you have attended in the week and with Evernote integration you can send your meeting notes to Evernote if that’s where you choose to keep all your notes.
They also have an insights feature enabling you to understand how your organisation spends its time, giving a summary about hours, euros and energy spent in your organisation. All in all it’s a great addition to your productivity kit and when it’s starts at Free I’m sure you will be all ears too!
Here’s to better meetings in 2016.
