Have a meeting scheduled? Maybe you shouldn’t. Check these two things to see if your meeting should be an email — or perhaps nothing at all.

I chatted with a friend who, like me, recently left his full-time employer to start his own consultancy. We were chatting about how little we missed the endless meetings — many of which were poorly planned — if they were planned at all.

If you are going to gather people in a room for a meeting, check these things first to decide if you really should have a meeting:

1. No agenda = no meeting

An agenda is a must for an effective meeting. Every item on the agenda should contribute to achieving the meeting’s purpose (see #2). I respect people who refuse meeting invites when there is no agenda or no promise of one.

2. No clear desired outcome = no meeting

If you can’t write 1 or more specific outcomes that need to occur in the meeting (a task to be completed, a problem to be solved, etc.) then do not have the meeting. If you are simply getting together because you feel like you should have a staff meeting once a month, then don’t. You can have an optional social time if you want, but don’t make people choose between the work they need to get done and your no outcome staff meeting.

“Time is a precious, non-renewable resource, so if you’re wasting it in a meeting, you can’t spend it on other more important things.’’ — Mamie Stewart and Tai Tsao in Momentum

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