We all have many meetings to attend in an average week, or just on one day of the week. You know how frustrating it is when you are in a meeting and it doesn't start on time or runs overtime, or nothing gets accomplished. You can't always control meetings you don't run; but what about those that you do?

Here are some best practices for keeping your meetings on schedule and accomplishing your goals. Hey - you might even find that people enjoy attending your meetings! (OK - maybe I got carried away there - well, if you bring the donuts...)

• Develop a detailed meeting agenda, including topics and timeframes (e.g., discuss new project plan, 45 minutes; if people like to spent a few minutes catching up with everyone - include 10 minutes in the beginning for networking/catch up and those who want to can skip those first 10 minutes.)
• Invite only those individuals who really need to be at the meeting - contributors/speakers, stakeholders, etc.
• Keep meeting minutes and track "to do's," decisions made, unresolved issues with follow up dates, etc.
• Keep a "parking lot" list - if someone brings up something that is not on the agenda, put it in the parking lot for a next meeting or for follow up after the meeting ends.
• Review progress/status reports from the last meeting to show progress.
• Assign someone to be a time keeper to keep everyone on track. Stick to the agenda - if something is going to take more time than allocated - include it on the next meeting agenda.
• Before ending the meeting, draft the agenda for the next meeting based on results of this meeting.
• Do a brief evaluation of the meeting at wrap up - check in with everyone on how the meeting was from their perspective.

I have heard of individuals who run their meetings with everyone standing up - no chairs. You can't get too comfortable that way and are more likely to help keep the meeting on track. I don't think we need to be that drastic however. Just plan your meeting effectively so that it runs efficiently.