The 25 Minute Meeting Half the Time, Double the Impact

Sharpen your focus and tighten your time frames to get more done in less time

The 25 Minute Meeting goes beyond “cut to the chase” and shows you how to take back your work day with smarter planning and more productive action. Meetings have become a de facto way of working, and as they pile up and stretch to interminable lengths, they eat up our days and sink productivity—if they are poorly planned and run. Done well, meetings are short, sharp, productive affairs that provide critical time and space for the interactions that drive business forward. This book shows you how to effectively and efficiently recover your time with a roadmap to the 25-minute meeting.

A clear framework walks you through the entire meeting process, with emphasis on timing and focus, with illustrative case studies showing how real-world meetings have transformed from painful to purposeful with a few simple changes. From purging the invite list, to shutting down irrelevant tangents and facilitating more efficient communication, this book can help you reclaim your lost hours without sacrificing collaboration.

• Learn the art and science of conducting short, useful, purposeful meetings
• Follow a clear framework for meeting planning, preparation, and participation
• Assess your meetings’ effectiveness using helpful checkpoints in each chapter
• Boost your meetings’ impact with variety and visuals—without adding unnecessary time

A well-run meeting is a goldmine of opportunity for Getting Things Done; it is where the diverse set of talents on your team come together into a whole of achievement—it is your most valuable commodity. It’s time to leave dusty, boring, time-sucking meetings in the past and revolutionize the way we come together. The 25 Minute Meeting shows you a fresh, more productive approach to working, cooperating, collaborating, and communicating the 21^st century way.

The 25-Minute Meeting is the first book in Donna McGeorge’s It’s About Time series. With The 25-Minute Meeting, you’ll learn to give your meetings purpose and stop them wasting your time; with The First 2 Hours, you’ll find the best time of the day to do your most productive work; and with The 1-Day Refund, you’ll discover how to give yourself the extra capacity to think, breathe, live and work.

DONNA McGEORGE is a speaker, author and mentor who helps people make their work work. Using a creative, practical approach, she improves workplace effectiveness while challenging thinking on leadership, productivity and virtual work.

www.donnamcgeorge.com

About the author xi

Acknowledgements xiii

Introduction xv

How to use this book xxi

Part I: Why meet in 25 minutes 1

1 Meetings are painful 3

2 It’s easier than you think 13

3 There’s nothing to lose 21

Part II: How to conduct 25-minute meetings 31

4 Set up 35

5 Show up 67

6 Step up 89

Part III: Add value to your 25-minute meetings 121

7 Get virtual 125

8 Add variety 135

9 Think visual 147

Your 25-minute meeting roadmap 161

Work with me 167

Sources 169

Index 173

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