Steve or Robbins here and welcome to the Get It Done guys quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

I just love meetings. No, I don't. I'm lying. I hate meetings. So many meetings seem to be a complete waste of time.

There are lots of reasons and today we'll address one of the biggies.

Why would you call a meeting in the first place other than being a masochist?

Meeting to the Swiss Army knife of business.

Have a problem? Call a meeting. Surely that will fix things.

Dream on. There are only four reasons to call a meeting. First, call meetings to share information.

This is a common use of meetings and a bad one. A dozen people get to interrupt their workflow

to sit around and listen to irrelevant presentations, vainly hoping they'll walk away with a single

useful insight. My friend Caroline spends two hours a week

in status meetings that have nothing to do with her. It's utterly wasted time. If you have

information to share, first figure out who actually needs to know. And if you don't know,

ask people. Say, I need to let you all know the status of the zombie world domination project,

who wants to be notified? Then form an email list for the discussion. And there's no need to

include everyone. For teams, use an electronic bulletin board or collaboration tool. You can post

regular important information, and team members can catch up when they have time. By the way, when

emailing, don't ever use BCC unless the person you're BCCing asked you to. Many people

BCC their boss to cover their butts and show their boss that they did indeed send out the required

information. I know you would never do this, but if you're even tempted, don't. If you're really

concerned about butt covering, at least do it proudly. Write your boss a separate message, saying,

I told everyone to bring chocolate, frosting, and avocado to the company picnic. If you must have

an information meeting, find out which information is relevant to which participants, make an

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