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My answer is a bit longer because I try to give a complete picture on my approach.
Basic question: meeting or email?
Will a short call or email do it instead of a meeting?
Is the meeting really important?
If not, call, walk up to someone or write an email.
Specify topic
Use a short, but concise title for the meeting, from which the topic and goal are already well recognizable.
Good:
Bad:
Agenda: define the goal
Describe what the meeting is about.
If there are questions or tasks in advance, put them in the description.
Is the meeting a follow-up to a previous meeting? Briefly summarize the last meeting.
Does it require any preparation from the participants? If so, make that clear in the description.
Clearly describe what the goal of the meeting is and specify the expectation:
What is the expected outcome at the end of the meeting?
Timeboxing - time schedule
Think about the time schedule of your meeting based on the agenda and determine times for each item, how long it may take at most. If possible, always plan some buffer at the end, in case it is necessary to overrun a topic. Also, every participant is happy if the meeting ends earlier than planned.
Determine the group of participants
Think carefully about who will be invited to the meeting.
Answer the following questions about each person:
If you cannot answer any of the questions, the person is most likely not needed for the meeting.
Determine moderator
If it makes sense to have a moderator for the meeting, define one. This can be one of the already invited participants, but also another person whose sole benefit is the role of the moderator. For example deeply discussing technical topics and moderating the meeting at the same time can't be handled by most people.
Sending the invitation
Invite the participants in time and check the acceptances before the meeting starts.
This is awesome! Thank you!
My pleasure 😊
I even include this in welcome mails/checklists for new colleagues and with new project teams to make sure people are aware of those guidelines. Most of the time it helps to prevent unnecessary meetings or to keep meetings short with people who love to hear themselves talking 😁
Agendas are very good. And sometimes you have to rein the meeting in and keep it on topic. Sometimes the best thing you can say is: great idea, let's take that offline and then do so.
Also note any decisions and act on them, that avoids another meeting about the meeting you just had.
Hey Heather! We'd love to hear a voice recording of this comment if you're interested and willing! Instructions are above 😀
Thanks Gracie.
I have sent an e-mail to pod@dev.to with a voice note.
As a freelance developer, the best meetings will always be those meetings that have a clear objective and the email exchange that need further discussion that should be done over zoom, instead of email.
If you need to meet to make a decision on some topic, try to find other ways to decide that do not imply meeting.
If you need to meet to perform some routine or process make sure that the agenda is cristal clear and that everyone knows how to prepare the meeting so that it can be reduced at the very minimum.
If you are not interacting in the meeting you should not be in the meeting.
Make meeting agenda (before the meeting) and share meeting notes(after the meeting)
Use a timer that shows how much money you're wasting. There's lots of software alternatives: google "meeting cost timer"