Recommendation: Add 15 Minutes to Every Meeting

Some days my calendar looks like a stack of toddler’s building blocks. We all have those days. And when it comes to an end, the last thing I want to do is look through my notebook or email and see what still needs to be done. Trying to remember what resources, introductions, research I promised I would send. I’m not a brain surgeon, it will have to wait for tomorrow. My brain is done.

So when productivity and organization specialist, Michelle Santafarro, recommended blocking 15 minutes after each meeting, phone call, or coaching session to capture information from the conversation, and next steps, I was floored. Discouraged. Exhausted at the thought of it. I may have even whined a bit as a response to Michelle’s recommendation. (AND yet, I knew she was right)

I knew something needed to change in the way I got work done. And in the way I scheduled my day.

Implementing change – much like setting up a new system of any kind – takes time to adjust and tweak to make it work for you. I have been working on this for over a year. Most of the time it works. And then I get away from the habit, things build up, and I need to go back to Michelle’s recommendation.

The 15 additional minutes Michelle recommended include tasks to capture:

•     Follow-up information to send
•     Introductions to make
•     Reminders to myself to check in on a specific date
•     Reminder to reach out before a big event (meeting, ask, event, etc.)

This time allows you to focus on the conversation and consider other thoughts you may not have had in the moment. This happens to me frequently, and I often reach back out to clients, colleagues, or prospects the next day with a subsequent question. My mother calls this the Monday morning QB moment.

For example, make a note to yourself to follow-up with your colleague to find out how the meeting went with her new client; if your client accepted the offer for the new job; about your friend’s trip of a lifetime to Antarctica; or how your client felt when he asked for a raise. I love when I send a quick email to clients or colleagues on these occasions and they respond with gratitude for thinking of them. Although this is not why I do it!

If you are in a role or industry where you are serving others, keeping track of important or meaningful events for your clients and colleagues is one way to make yourself stand out. A system of adding 15 minutes of Recovery Time to each, or at least most, meetings will allow you to do this easily and effectively.

Note – you will get to the point that you don’t need more than 2 minutes to fully recover between meetings – i.e., making note of what you need to do, or sending those promised resources. Take the remaining 13 minutes to reset your brain, and re-fill your energy bucket. Laugh with Jimmy Fallon if needed (that’s my tactic which I take advantage of a few times a week…)