How to balance between meetings and individual work? What are your ideas?

Something I've recently started practicing is putting everything on my calendar. This includes not just meetings and work tasks, but also personal commitments such as lunch breaks and time with family. Hope it helps you keep organized and become more productive. By finding a balance between meetings and individual work, you can stay productive and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

Personally, I try to minimize and altogether avoid meetings that my presence is not crucial for. As a general rule of thumb, if all I need to do in a meeting is listen and not give any insights, I do not participate. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, but I find it quite helpful when trying to determine if I need to attend. Also, scheduling meetings for the shortest time possible is a very good practice. https://teamhood.com/productivit...

I've been doing the solopreneur thing for the last couple of years, but this was always a common problem or complaint in every company I've ever worked for. I think two things can help. 1) A cultural shift in the company to try and reduce unnecessary meetings. Good luck with this one lol. 2) Block out time for deep work. A meeting isn't always the most important thing. I think that's hard to recognize because once it's created it demands your immediate attention. Along with group chat and phone notifications, these are all things that we need to consciously say no to if we want to focus.

Meetings are a necessary evil. It’s easy to feel you haven’t gotten anything done, if you do not categorize meetings as work. Here’s a few tips that work well for me: - Plan your week on Sunday evening (week goals/broad tasks) - Review meetings: make sure they have an agenda/jot down your talking points/expected outcomes from the convo - Create a master list of tasks and block time on the calendar - Review progress EOD and plan the following day - Review EOW and repeat Timeblocking helps set expectations from the task/time commitment. Start small, you’ll get over time.

Fewer meetings is better. We do not really have any, just ad-hoc one-on-one calls via Slack.

Blocking one day in the weeks for strictly meetings only and blocking few days for strict no meetings .

Depends on your goals. I'm imagining a scenario when someone is an employee/freelancer and struggles between work and his own side hustles. If their goal is sooner rather than later to have their main/only source of income from his own projects, I suggest they will have to change priorities so that individual projects get more space and energy. If this were me (and it was me) and I would want to be full time working on my projects, I would work for them when I am have my best energy, creativity and likelihood of arriving in flow.

Be realistic and honest about how much time you need for individual work. Set boundaries when attending meetings and make sure to allot yourself enough time to focus on your work.

Balancing meetings and individual work can be challenging, as both are important for the success of a project. Here are some tips for finding a balance: 👉 Set clear goals and priorities: Before scheduling meetings or starting individual work, ensure you clearly understand what needs to be accomplished and which tasks are most important. This will help you allocate your time more effectively. 👉Limit the number and duration of meetings: Meetings can be time-consuming, so try to limit your meetings and keep them as short as possible. Consider using tools like video conferencing to save time and make meetings more efficient. 👉 Schedule blocks of time for individual work. Set aside specific blocks of time for focused, individual work. This can help you get more done and avoid constant interruptions. 👉 Communicate clearly with your team: Make sure to communicate with your team about your availability and when you will be working on individual tasks. This will help them know when you are available for meetings and when you need to focus on other work. 👉 Take breaks. It's essential to take breaks and give yourself time to recharge. This can help you be more productive and focused when you are working. By setting clear goals, limiting the number and duration of meetings, scheduling blocks of time for individual work, communicating clearly with your team, and taking breaks, you can find a balance between meetings and individual work.

Break up tasks by high priority, mid priority and low priority to complete individual work then schedule meetings during your slow hours/days.

I have seen observing no meetings day at certain places.

I usually try to keep meetings together for example blocking either first half or second half for meeting so that I get a good stretch for work

All you need is a plan for the day. That pretty much leaves me sorted

I see all these great ideas that I probably should be following in the replies, I just color-code my google calendar differently. Haha.

I plan to have all my meetings within a 3hr slot if possible and have the rest of the time to work on my personal task.

I tend to dedicate my mornings to deep work and take my meetings only in afternoons. I thus reserve the periods of the day where I'm most focused to move forward with my own work and only exceptionally accept meetings on these slots.

Here are some useful ideas you can use to help balance meetings and individual work: 1. Set Clear Priorities: Set and communicate clear priorities so that everyone knows what tasks should take precedence and what meetings are essential and which are not. 2. Block Time: Set aside blocks of time for meetings and individual work. This will help you stay on track and ensure that meetings don't consume too much of your time. 3. Use Technology: Use technology to your advantage. Use video conferencing when possible to save on travel time and look into tools that can automate tasks and help you manage your time more efficiently. 4. Schedule Breaks: Schedule breaks in between meetings and individual work. This will help you stay focused and refreshed. 5. Delegate Tasks: Delegate tasks to team members and colleagues, when possible. This will help you free up time for meetings and individual work. 6. Streamline Processes: Streamline processes and tasks wherever possible. Automating tasks and eliminating unnecessary steps can help you save time and make meetings more productive.

Although I don't have meetings, what's should be important to note before you have a frequent meeting would be asking some questions: 1. What purpose does this meeting serve? 2. What happens if I miss a few meetings? What are the consequences, and how likely are they? 3. If I don't have this meeting, what can I get done? You'll often notice that you often don't need as many meetings as you think. Checking on progress is important, but you should put trust in your team to produce results. Also, you can also question how long do the meetings actually need to be. It's more than likely some of the time is eaten up by introductions and niceties or other subjects being covered. So if you could streamline meetings, that would also reduce the time taken.

Try to reduce some meaningless meetings and talk about substantive issues as much as possible instead of meaningless discussions