Originally published at: If you must hold meetings, hold them at 11 a.m. | Boing Boing
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11am? Tempting to run it long in hopes of sandwiches.
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Where I work it’s also been suggested that meetings be scheduled at odd times–say, 11:10 instead of 11:00, to give those who are inevitably late to every meeting time to come in. In fact this was tried and what happened was those same people came in even later.
Let’s face it: for some people meetings are terrible and aren’t going to help them get anything done. For some meetings may even mean they get less done. And for some meetings can actually be useful, even beneficial.
A good manager will accept that different people have different needs and do their best to find ways to accommodate them. In my experience, though, most managerial training puts that sort of thinking as the very lowest priority, if it considers it at all.
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Yeah, if you want people to be on time for meetings, start promptly at the stated time regardless of who’s present - even (especially?) if the missing include major stakeholders. And wrap the meeting on time or early regardless of how much remains to be discussed. Break into subgroups or schedule a follow-up when necessary. Meetings don’t have to be terrible.
As for meeting at 11? That’s great, but the remaining 3-4 meetings of the day would like to have a word.
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I have almost no memory of the post-lunch meetings at one employer, because the conference room had a wall of windows that lined up perfectly with the afternoon sun. It was ideal for naps, and there I was; full and tired.
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They’re making an interpretation of the data, but there’s an alternative one: the reason more people choose Monday at 11:00 for ad hoc meetings is because that’s the time everyone is most likely to be free, because most people hate meetings on Monday and don’t schedule them.
Or at least, that’s a potential interpretation I’m tossing out there just to muddy the waters a little.
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Also obvious: never schedule a meeting after 3pm on Fridays!
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You also have to take into account where the meeting attendees are located. If people in the meeting are separated by 10-12 time zones, 11 am is a terrible choice.
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An argument for post-lunch meetings:
ETA: Though I’m happy with the story as related by Kahneman, I’m not satisfied with the political bent of the above link (which I didn’t catch until it oneboxed). This interview with Kahneman doesn’t cover the story in as much detail but may be a better reference:
This Guardian article covers the same topic and the same source from a somewhat different angle:
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I had a similar issue with one or two of the meeting rooms, except that they were colder than the rest of the office by a few degrees and the HVAC noise was 
just right to trigger my sleep mode.
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I hate meetings during mid-morning as that is where I’m most productive likely due to the peak performance of coffee, food, light and overall mental state by then. Meetings then are an interruption to actual work getting done.
Most of my meetings comprise talking out or drawing out what it is I asked in an email or Teams chat that could not be bothered to be read the first 3 times.
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In the company that I work for ~90% people want have to have their lunch at 11:00 AM.
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Depends- are people attending from other time zones?
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Meetings mandated by our Admin are frequently during the middle of staff lunches. “Surely you can work around these necessary meetings!” And don’t start me on video meetings for what could easily be covered in a properly worded e-mail 
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Just as long as you don’t skip lunch:
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I also wish people would stop scheduling meetings longer than an hour, 1.5h tops. After that my dopamine levels are so depleted I won’t be able to be involved in the discussion, process information, or even just generally pay attention to what’s going on anymore.
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10 am so it wraps up right at lunch time and then buy your employees lunch.
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I avoid meetings as much as possible. They mostly just waste my time and take me away from productive work that have deadlines attached.
Also:
Seriously.
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Had one today where I came close to pointing out that “piss off a solid-oak table” was not on the agenda (much less twice). But it was at 1pm; perhaps 11am would’ve gone better…
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