Tired of Useless Meetings? 9 Ways to Make Them More Effective. (Infographic) Agenda Item Number 1: Control your meetings so your meetings don't control you.

By Kim Lachance Shandrow

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

This article originally published December 10, 2015. 

Meetings. What a drag they can be. They go longer than they’re supposed to. Someone blabs out of turn or off topic. Your mind drifts to tasks you could be checking off instead of sitting there, stuck. Then come the action items and, tag, you’re it. Your to-do list just got longer.

Sound familiar?

Sure does to us. But, believe it or not, not all meetings are total timesucks and not all meetings are boring. Some run like clockwork. With an attendee nip here and an agenda tuck there, they can be much more efficient, productive and, if you’re lucky, even a little fun.

Related: 5 Reasons In-Person Meetings Still Matter

From holding walk-and-talks

outside in the fresh air, to scheduling start times like a Swiss train conductor (we kid you not), here are nine clever ways to have more effective meetings, care of the meeting makers at CT Business Travel. Bonus: Not one mention of Robert’s Rules of Order, we promise.

Click to Enlarge+


Related:  'Owning' a Room, Even When You Don't Feel That You Can

Efective meetings (Infographic)
Wavy Line
Kim Lachance Shandrow

Former West Coast Editor

Kim Lachance Shandrow is the former West Coast editor at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was a commerce columnist at Los Angeles CityBeat, a news producer at MSNBC and KNBC in Los Angeles and a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times. She has also written for Government Technology magazine, LA Yoga magazine, the Lowell Sun newspaper, HealthCentral.com, PsychCentral.com and the former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Coop. Follow her on Twitter at @Lashandrow. You can also follow her on Facebook here

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