Ep. 43: Death by Meetings

If there's one thing most marketing professionals -- creative or otherwise -- can agree upon, it's that meetings are often terrible for productivity, but remain a very necessary evil.

On paper, meetings should bring people together, provide opportunities to align expectations, and move projects or initiatives forward. Still many of us avoid them -- or, at the very least, we consider many of them to be a nuisance. And we'll drag our feet and whine about how we wish were still at our desks, getting "actual work" done.

But why? 

That was what we attempted to get to the bottom of in this episode -- but our carefully outlined conversation took an interesting turn. 

We started with the usual beats of noting the key differences between meaningful meetings with too many people vs. meetings that should be meaningful, but are simply not run well. 

Then, as we dove deeper (and moved away from our original outline for the episode), we started uncovering some interesting truths around what we do and do not control, when it comes to our own schedule. Because as easy as it is to play the victim -- throwing up our hands and shouting, "Ugh, stupid freaking meetings are killing my productivity!" -- how often are meetings the real problem?

How do we learn to identify the moments when we should be pointing the finger at ourselves instead?

Enjoy!

What We Talked About How to run an effective meeting. The 3 components of a successful meeting agenda (according to Liz). The curse of the one hour meeting. When is lost productivity the fault of the meeting or the fault of our own accountability? Marketers vs. creatives: How easy is it to work in short bursts? The importance of knowing when to advocate for yourself and your schedule. Tips for setting boundaries with your calendar. Resources We Talked About A Primer to the Pomodoro Technique (LifeHacker) The State of Remote Work (Owl Labs -- and Jessie-Lee's big project!) We Want to Hear from You!

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