“If you want to kill time, a MEETING is the perfect weapon!”. Anon


While the saying is rather extreme every one of us knows what it is like to sit in a meeting that is going nowhere. My personal experience is no different. I have spent countless hours, cumulating into days and even months of my life in disappointing meetings asking WHY???


Why am I here?

Why are they here?

Why are we all still here?

Why can’t we get to the point, stay on point and achieve a decision? 


All too often meetings get a bad wrap. Survey after survey tell the same sad story, meetings are frustrating because:

  • Meetings are held about meetings
  • They are not organized and there is no agenda
  • They do not start on time, stay on track or finish on time
  • There is no clear purpose
  • There are no specific action items
  • The minutes are not issued or are inaccurate
  • The presenter/chair is unprepared and/or weak at leading the meeting
  • An attendee/s dominate conversation or derail with a hidden agenda
  • Attendees turn up late, leave the meeting or do not show up at all
  • Valuable meeting time is wasted on repeating old minutes


If you find that you have attended more of these frustrating meetings than you would like, there is a way to overcome and end the frustration.  

Within a previous article: Why Most Meetings Are Awful And What You Can Do About It, we provided 4 tips to super charge your meetings. Putting an end to frustrating meetings starts with you, yes you! It takes a bit of courage but YES YOU CAN DO IT! Here is how:

  1. If you get invited to a meeting without an agenda, decline and request the agenda and purpose
  2. Screen the audience/attendee list, if you feel the right people are not in the room, approach the meeting organizer to discuss
  3. Propose roles be allocated to those attending the meeting i.e. minute taker, timekeeper etc.
  4. Recap at the close of each agenda item, what was discussed, agreed and next steps


Executives devote an inordinate amount of time (40-50% of total working time) in meetings that are getting longer, more frequent and less productive. Follow the basic steps and put an end to frustrating meetings. You can do it!


And just in case you would like more help, Minute-it is the simple yet powerful way to run your meetings.