Welcome to this week's episode of the Modern Mentor podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Cook.

In today's episode, I'll be talking about how to manage meeting overload, because it's real.

But you have more control than you think. So let's

talk about how you can regain it while keeping your reputation protected. To paraphrase the famous

psychologist Abraham Maslow, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I don't

usually swing a hammer due to my tendency to injure myself

and those around me, but I've always appreciated the expression. When we walk around with a single

solution in hand, we assume every problem requires this very solution. A hammer can do a lot of

things, but try to mend a cracked phone or a broken heart with a hammer, and your ending will not be a

happy one. This is how I think about meetings in the workplace. We hold them like a hammer. Have a problem

to solve, need to generate ideas, have a message to deliver, need an update on a project,

have data to review, schedule a meeting. Now I'm not saying meetings are bad. Meetings are

excellent drivers of collaboration, connection, innovation, and alignment. They offer tremendous

value when scheduled for the right reasons, with the right people, for the right amount of time,

and with the right objectives. Frankly, without meetings, we wouldn't have a canon of Dilbert comics to keep us chuckling.

And then where would we be? Meetings are also great at robbing you of the free time you need to get

work done. So how can you make better decisions about when to attend meetings? And if your gut says to

opt out, how can you do that without damaging your reputation? Start by

adjusting your mindset. When a meeting request comes through, chances are you peek at your calendar,

and if the slot is available, you click accept. But you have a job to do. There are outcomes and

impacts that are yours to deliver. Your time and energy are finite resources.

It's your job to be mindful of how and where they're spent. Are there certain meetings

...