101 Project Management Problems and How to Solve Them

65. How can I avoid having too many meetings?

One of the top complaints about projects is “too many meetings.” Dealing with this effectively involves structuring meetings well and eliminating unnecessary meetings.

Building Better Meetings

People hate meetings less when they are more useful and shorter. Every meeting should have a point and be only as long as necessary to achieve its stated goals.

As project leader, you will need two kinds of regular meetings: team meetings including everyone and one-on-one meetings with each contributor. For most projects, both types will be scheduled weekly. The primary objectives for these meetings are general communications and team building, and for these neither needs to be lengthy.

A one-hour team meeting ...