Meetings are a necessary evil. There’s just no better way of getting a group of people to communicate, think about, and resolve issues if the meeting is well-structured.
I’m very lucky that at my job our meetings are productive… and few. Nevertheless, it’s still challenging to handle my group’s departmental meetings. My commute is twice as long, meaning I have no time for my usual exercise. I also have less control over what’s available to eat. And it’s stressful… I’m worried I’ll get stuck in serious traffic and won’t be able to pick my kids up in time.
I used a few strategies this time to good effect:
- Snacks. I forgot to bring snacks the first day, and found myself insanely hungry. The first chance I got I went to the store to buy a nut mix. Now, nuts aren’t my first (or second or third) choice for a snack ordinarily, but the protein and fat were great.
- Breakfast. Our VP thoughtfully catered our breakfast, a traditional one. I brought a sandwich made of ww bread and some PB2 for breakfast (2 points!), but also had about an egg’s worth of scrambled eggs and a tiny bit of potatoes (because I love them so). Having my own breakfast made it easier to resist the sausage and biscuits, but I should have brought more and passed on the buffet.
- Exercise. Having to sit in a car for 4 hours a day, on top of sitting in meetings, made me really regret having to miss my run or class. I managed to take a ten minute walk around a park, though, during a break. The sunshine and the breeze helped me.
- Lunch. We could order our lunch from a limited menu. Given the “salads” were all mayonaisse based, I asked that be excluded from mine. I also asked for no chips, and brought my own side quinoa salad. But I should’ve thrown out the cookie that came with lunch so I wouldn’t eat it later. I could’ve thrown out half the sandwich, too. Next time, I’ll plan better that way.
I’ve got a few more tactics for next quarter… anyone else have any good meeting mitigation strategies?
