If you find yourself getting bored in office meetings or that you spend maybe less than 5 minutes in the entire hour contributing anything useful to the entire discussion, you probably don’t need to be there.

The problem is that most people expect you to be there anyway, simply because that is what you are suppose to do when invited to a meeting.

The need to attend in-office meetings can be a great hang up for people who are thinking about telecommuting.

Because of that, you want to eliminate as many of your in-office meetings as possible before requesting permission to telecommute.

In this post, I am going to explain a method you can use to eliminate most if not all of your in-office meetings from your schedule.

In Meetings, Either Be Concise or Don’t Say Anything

Whenever you are in a meeting, don’t add to the energy of frivolous discussion that naturally occurs.

Most meetings have no clear outcome, so what usually happens is people end up discussing topics as they come up to fill the time.

For progress report type meetings, don’t ramble on to make your work sound more involved than it really is.

Communicate the main message that your manager wants to hear, then just keep quiet.

Only speak when you need to, and when you do speak, stick to the point.

This will give off the impression that you don’t like wasting time and that you are a very effective and efficient person.

How This Will Eliminate Your Need to Attend Meetings

Effective managers will not ask you to attend a meeting they know you don’t need to attend.

An effective manager will also understand if you tell them you would prefer not to attend a meeting if you feel your attendance is not completely necessary (in essence, you only need to communicate a short progress report which you could easily transmit via phone or email).

Ineffective co-workers or managers will have as many meetings as they can to fill up the day in order to look busy without actually accomplishing anything.

These are meetings of indulgence and you want to eliminate these completely from your schedule.

If you display efficiency and conciseness in meetings, this will do 2 things:

1. Make the time wasters feel uncomfortable (thus not inviting you to attend future meetings)
2. Makes it crystal clear how necessary it is for you to be at the meeting (thus giving you a valid excuse not to want to attend future meetings if your presence is deemed unnecessary)

If you sit in a 1 hour meeting and only spend a maximum of 2 minutes to communicate your main point, you probably don’t need to be there.

Some people might argue that even if you don’t speak, the reason you are at the meeting is to get updated on the progress of others.

I have found that even after attending these so called “update” meetings, I don’t remember half of what was said later on and I still need to refer to the meeting minutes which are forwarded to everyone via email.

Attending meetings whereby you only need to sit and listen should be avoided whenever all possible as the outcome of these meetings can usually be brought to light with a quick 2 minute run through of the meeting minutes.

Reasons You Can Give To Not Attend Meetings

Eliminating meetings altogether is a gradual process that starts with displaying effectiveness in the meeting itself.

This is important to communicate to your colleagues that you are about productivity and not about wasting time in meetings.

Once you have established this in their minds, you’re going to want to start rejecting invitations to meetings.

Here are 2 valid reasons you can give, though feel free to be creative:

1. There is something you are urgently trying to finish
2. You have an important phone call that you are expecting while the meeting is taking place and you don’t want to disrupt the meeting

If even after giving your reason(s) they insist you attend, try saying that you just want to skip the meeting just this once and that you will follow up through the meeting minutes or with a colleague later.

If they still insist you attend, ask them for the purpose of the meeting so you can prepare your part. Usually there is no clear purpose for meetings and asking this question further increases their discomfort and reluctance to invite you to future meetings.

This also discourages them from inviting you to meetings whereby they simply need you to sit and listen.

Next, ask if you can present your part first so that you can leave the meeting early in order to continue working, to deal with an urgent task or to receive an urgent phone call.

Over time, people will gradually get the idea that they should not invite you to meetings and pretty soon you won’t have to be attending meetings at all.

Take Action

For the next week, try to avoid at least one in-office meeting by using the tips above.

State that you have something important to attend to and you would like to skip the meeting just this once. That is usually enough to get out of a meeting in most cases.

If successful, attempt to apply the rest of the advice in this post to try and eliminate all of the unnecessary meetings in your schedule.

Related posts:

1. Exercise 3.2: Testing your Full Time Teleworking ability
2. Exercise 1.3: Improving the teleworking compatibility of work related activities
3. 8 Easy Ways to Look Effective in the Office

Why you need to do this

If you don’t stop people from dumping their work on you, you will never be able to be in full control of your work schedule. If you aren’t in control of your work schedule, you will not be able to streamline your work and enjoy free time once you are outside of the office

Common Fears

“I’m worried that if I don’t help, people will think that I am not a team player”

There is a difference between assisting an honest colleague who needs help and having work mercilessly dumped on you by a lazy collegue or boss. Ever watched Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle? You don’t want to be Harold while your collegues head off for a weekend of fun filled adventures in Vegas. Bite the bullet and learn how to say no. Colleagues who have no respect for your time are not important, so don’t treat them like they are.

“I can’t say no, he/she is my boss”

Do not get confused between work that is given to you by your boss and work that should be done by  your boss and is given to you. If it is your responsibility, then do it. If they offer to clear your schedule so you can work on their work, try telling them that what you are doing cannot wait and that you will get back to them if you have time. If they want you to work overtime to do their work, flat out say no.

If they ask why, just say it is a personal matter and you would rather not discuss it. If they get mad, insist you are sorry and that you would like to help, but you simply cannot. Whatever you do, do not fold. Given enough time, your boss will probably drift to someone else in the office and leave you alone because they feel dealing with you is too much of a hassle.

“I’m worried they will get angry if I say no”

This is a possible outcome, but so what? So what if they get angry? Angry collegues who don’t get what they want are like kids throwing a tantrum. If you give in, they just get worst over time. If you ignore it, they usually will either stop or turn to someone who is more responsive. Act grown up, give a logical reason as to why you’re saying no, then ignore the tantrum.

“I’m worried I will develop a bad relationship with my boss”

A reasonable boss will understand and accept your reason for saying no. An unreasonable boss who doesn’t is not the kind of person who you want to suck up to. Would you crawl on the floor and kiss your bosses shoes because they threatened to hurt your family by taking away your job on a whim? Have some self respect and don’t give face to bosses who do not value you ahead of themselves.

Do not worry if you feel like this is risking your chances at getting a work from home agreement. We will teach you how to increase your value so that you become untouchable to the words “you’re fired”.

Take Action

For the next week, attempt to say no to all requests made to you by collegues. The purpose of this is to help you get comfortable with saying no. If they ask why you can’t just say you are flat out and simply cannot, this is usually enough.

After a week, come back to the post and comment on your experience, good or bad.  Help others have the courage to say no and to learn from your experience

Related posts:

1. Exercise 4.3: Role Playing to Overcome Situational Fears

“The average American worker has fifty interruptions a day, of which seventy percent have nothing to do with work.”

~W. Edwards Deming (American Consultant, Stastistician and Educator)

Why You Should Do This

Picking up the phone to talk to someone not only distracts you from your work, it also wastes your time. This is bad, especially when you are trying to finish your work quickly and hope to have some peace and quiet during your free time while working from home.

You will want to minimize any and all electronic access to you before you exit the office, starting with the phone. The key to solving this problem is train the people who call you on a consistent basis to email you first if they have a problem.

Common Fears

“But what if I miss something important by not picking up?”

I have found that when something is extremely urgent, the caller will usually leave a voicemail detailing the reason for their call.

“But what if the voicemail they leave asks me to call them back?”

To prevent them from asking you to call back in the first place, state in your voicemail message that you are not taking calls at the moment as you are busy and do not want to be interrupted. Also state that they should send you an email explaining the issue they are having trouble with and that you will get back to them by email as soon as you have time available.

“What if my phone does not have a silent mode and they keep calling despite the voicemail?”

For persistant callers who choose to ignore the voicemail, set a time limit on your availability when you pick up and ask immdiately what you can do to help them. This will force them to get straight to the point. If they say they’ll call back when you have more time, insist that you are not available to talk later and that you can spare 2 minutes if they hurry.

Take Action

For the next week, let every call that comes your way ring straight to voicemail and see how many emergencies you miss as a result. You want to do everything you can to drop the number of calls you receive to a minimum or eliminate them altogether if you can.

No related posts.