Section 11.4. Wasteful Meetings

11.4. Wasteful Meetings

We can often find ourselves deluged with meeting after meeting. That's OK if work is getting done, but learn how to detect when meetings are wasteful .

There are many kinds of meetings, but let's group them into two general types: status meetings and work meetings. Status meetings are just that: people reporting on progress on their aspects of a project. Work meetings are when people try to get work done.

It can be a waste of everyone's time if you try to problem-solve during a status meeting. If something can't be resolved quickly, pick a time for the involved parties to work it outdon't waste everyone's time. I find it useful to have that meeting immediately after the current meeting. People not involved can leave or drop off the conference call. Everyone is already together, so there's usually no scheduling conflicts to work out.

When I email an announcement of a meeting, I indicate whether it is a work or status meeting. This makes it clear what people should expect and puts them in the right mindset. It also makes it easier for the facilitator to cut off inappropriate discussions when they arise.

As a participant, I realized that I had an influence on whether the meeting was going to be a waste of time. Being on time significantly improved the meeting's efficiency. Being prepared (reading the material being reviewed, etc.) meant I wasn't dragging the meeting down. If I was presenting material, emailing copies to everyone a day early made other people better prepared (though that meant I had to be prepared a day early). I always send an email reminder about meetings 24 hours in advance. This reduces the number of people who arrive late or people who disrupt the meeting's effectiveness by not showing up at all.

Tips for Meeting Facilitators

• Always send a reminder email 24 hours in advance.

• Make it clear whether this is a status or work meeting.

• List the full date ("Friday, Dec 2," not just "tomorrow").

• List the time. If you work across time zones, list the time and time zone; don't assume people know your time zone. Better yet, include the time converted to all appropriate zones.

• Include URLs to the documents people will need. Even if this is the third meeting about a particular document, keep including the URL. (Include the document as an attachment only when you have no other choice or when some members don't have access to your Wiki.)

• Include a written agendaa simple outline of the issues to be covered.

• Show up five minutes early, or earlier if there is audio/visual equipment to be set up.

• If you want people to show up on time, don't announce that the meeting starts at 2 p.m., announce that it starts at 1:54 p.m. People will show up to find out why it starts at such a strange time.

• Always start on time. If people are constantly late, start on time and put the most important items first. Don't repeat the items for latecomers; tell them the info will be in the minutes. People will start coming on time. (They'll hate you, but they'll be on time.)

I learned to hold back from having side conversations. I realized that while I felt my witty comments were a gift to all who heard them, they derailed meetings more than I had realized; so, I learned to keep my mouth shut.

As WiFi technology became more pervasive, I found that I could IM my witty comments to just a friend or two, which satisfied my need to be heard without causing too much distraction. Finally, for meetings that were a complete waste of my time, but unavoidable, I could bring a laptop and get work done, keeping an ear open for the important bits. However, I did find that when I was doing this, it was polite to sit in a less visible spot, and it was OK to do this only if there was a large crowd of people.

Of course, work isn't the only place where we waste time.

11.4.1. Standing Around a Video Store Deciding What to Rent

Ever spend an hour walking around a video store trying to figure out what you want to rent? Do friends and coworkers often mention movies that sound great, but once you walk into the store you can't remember any of them? It happens to all of us.

There is a solution.

In your organizer, keep a list of movies that people mention. PDA users can create a note called "Videos." PAA users can put a sheet of paper under "V" in the A-Z notes section. Any time someone mentions a movie that you'd like to see, write it down.

Now when you enter a video store, open to that list and rent the first thing on the list. You'll spend more time watching movies and less time trying to remember their names.

Alternatively, there is a service called Netflix (http://netflix.com) that lets you rent DVDs by mail. Their web site lets you maintain a queue of movies you'd like to see. When you return a DVD, they immediately mail you the first available DVD on your list. Now, when a coworker mentions a great movie, you can log into the Netflix web site and add it to your queue. You can even add films that haven't been released yet. They'll float to the top of the list and you'll get them when they are released. That's perfect for all those "wait until it's out on video" recommendations.

The web site lets you rearrange the items on your queue. There are utilities for Windows and Mac that let you manipulate your list a little easier than you can from the Netflix web siteNetflix Freak for Mac OS X is very popular.

11.4.2. Watching Less Bad TV

Let me make one thing clear: I love TV. I'm not one of those elitists who goes around proudly announcing that they don't watch, nay, don't even own a TV. I think TV is great. In the last 15 years, it has gone from being a total wasteland to a wasteland filled with pearls. The problem is keeping the pearls and avoiding the waste.

From a time management perspective, the problem with TV is that it expects us to schedule our lives around when shows are broadcast, not when we want to watch a particular show.

As a result, when we do turn on the TV, we don't watch what we want to watch, we watch the best show that happens to be on at that moment. Very inefficient.

Then came DVRs . They enable you to record shows to a hard disk and watch them any time you want. There are many brands, but Tivo has the most geek appeal because there's a Linux box under the hood.

I bought my Tivo to help me watch less TV, and watch higher-quality shows when I am watching TV. In other words, when I did have time for TV, I wanted the pearls; I didn't want to settle for the best thing on right now.

After using my Tivo for a few months, I found that I was watching more and more TV. I needed to reverse this trend.

That's when I invented Tom's Three Tivo Rules to help me watch less TV:

Rule 1

If you watch all the way to the end of the program, you have to delete it. Don't give me any of that "Oh, I'll want to watch that again" logic. You don't have enough time to watch everything that gets recorded, let alone watch it a second time.

Rule 2

If you add anything to the list of shows that are automatically recorded (Season Passes), you have to delete something of equal length and frequency. Alternative: each month you have to delete at least one hour worth of Season Passes.

Rule 3

If it's about to get old enough to be automatically deleted, let it expire. No extending the date. Archiving it to tape because "I'll find time to watch it later" isn't allowed (see Rule 1 about how much free time you have). Dude, ya just gotta learn to let it go. For me, the only exceptions to this rule are the three shows at the top of my list. I practically bought my Tivo so that I'd never miss these programs: The Daily Show, The West Wing, and 24.

These are my personal rules. They were devised to help me use Tivo to reduce the amount of TV that I watch. Your mileage may vary.

11.4.3. Laundry and Housecleaning

Housework can take a lot of time. If you do not have laundry facilities where you live, spending a couple hours each week at a laundromat can be significant, especially if you have very little free time outside work. I'm a fan of "by the pound" laundry services. In my neighborhood, there are two places that will wash and fold my clothes for 85 cents per pound. Rather than killing half a day each week, I spend a few minutes dropping off my clothes on the way to work, and I pick them up on the way home or the next day.

It costs me about $20 per week. While $80 each month sounds like a lot of money, it starts to make sense when it frees up time that I can spend socially, doing activism, or writing this book. It's worth it.

Housework is another drag on one's time. A visit from a cleaning service once or twice a month can save a lot of time and make your place more presentable. Typical service includes vacuuming all carpets and floors, washing the kitchen floor, dusting all surfaces, and cleaning all bathrooms from top to bottom.

A clean house has many benefits. It's easier to host social events if you have a clean house. People are more willing to show up if your home isn't a disaster area. The time you save by having a cleaning service can be used to host more social nights at your place. Despite the modern convenience of staying in touch with friends via Instant Messenger, having friends over to hang out is highly valuable and builds stronger friendships than IM can. It's also cheaper than a night out, which can offset the cost of the cleaning.

An unexpected benefit you will discover is that a cleaning service forces you to clean up and straighten your messes the day before the service arrives. The precleaning twice a month keeps my personal clutter in check.

A cleaning service is most economical when the cost is divided by a few people. If you share a house with others, having a cleaning service every other week can be a godsend, and it helps to avoid arguments about whose turn it is to clean. Plus, I can't imagine four typical male system administrators sharing a house and it not looking like a disaster area and smelling like a locker room. This fixes many problems.

11.4.4. Hardware/Software Installation

Speaking of paying people to do work for you, when I have the budget, I find it useful to pay for installation of the hardware/software that we buy at work. This is particularly important for something that we'll never be repeating.

As an example, let's look at the process of installing a large backup/restore system and tape library. The installation has two parts. First, we do the installation of the hardware and software. This phase ends when we have one server being backed up properly. The second part is the ongoing add-change-delete of systems that are being backed up.

The learning curve for the first part is huge, and yet the payoff is very small. We will spend days, possibly weeks, setting up everything, battling bad manuals and crazy hardware problems. We won't be using this knowledge again because once the system is installed, we won't be installing another one. What might take us weeks could take a VAR or reseller a day or two because they have done it many times. It's their specialty. They know what the pitfalls are and how to avoid them.

The second part has a much better payoff. Learning how to add a new backup server, configure it to back up a new disk, and remove servers or disks has an excellent payoff. It is knowledge gained that we will use time and time again.

Another example is automated OS installation. Setting up a system to automatically load the OS and related applications on a workstation can be complicated, but it has a huge payoff, especially if you reload machines often or purchase many new machines. Examples of this kind of thing include Microsoft RIS, Solaris JumpStart, Red Hat KickStart, and FreeBSD NetBoot. It can be much more cost efficient to pay someone to set up the system and teach you how to make maintenance modifications (adding new software, and so on) rather than struggle through the initial installation alone.

This kind of consulting can be expensive and, therefore, it must be thought of during the budgeting process. Even though installation charges may be 20, 50, or even 100 percent as high as the purchase price of the hardware and software, paying someone to do the initial installation can be well worth it. Especially if this will free you up to work on other projects.

If you do take this advice, remember to shadow the person and have them explain what they are doing as they do it. That way, you get the benefit of his experience and understanding of how the system works, which is useful when you need to debug a problem. It may take some of your time, but not as much as if you try to do the installation yourself.

11.4.5. Others

There are plenty of other time-wasting activities that we can all manage much better. Hopefully the previous list has included a good sampling of work-related and personal time wasters to jog your memory and help you start thinking about the time wasters in your life that you can either manage better or eliminate completely. Of course, what's a waste of time for one person is an important part of life to someone else. Everyone is different.