Wondering how to recover from a recent meeting that ran late?

Are you looking for some helpful tips to to make sure your next meeting ends on time?

If you’ve ever presented or acted as the host of meeting, you know how much energy and determination it takes to stay on schedule.

A meeting will sometimes run long, even with the very best of intentions.

But if you want to want to make your next presentation bigger, better, and on time, you need to take a few steps back.

In this post, you’ll find several tips to help you uncover why a meeting ran late.

By analyzing information from past meetings, you’ll receive some solid information to make your next gathering a time management success.

Here are several questions to ask yourself about that late meeting.

The more honest you can be in your answers, the better!

How many minutes Over did the meeting run?

Was the meeting five, 10 or 20 minutes, or even an hour-long?

Was this a major or minor issue for you and the meeting participants?

what was the cause of this lateness?

Do you suspect the lateness as a result of a presenter, participants or observers?

Perhaps the lateness was caused by equipment failure, venue difficulties, traffic, or illness?

How WERE CAUSES ADDRESSED?

For instance, did the program continue on as scheduled with no modifications?

Or was there an abbreviation to the program?

Perhaps some other permutation of events took place?

What can you learn from your past experience?

Now that you have a better idea as to why the meeting ran late, it’s time to consider additional information.

Ask yourself what you can learn from your past experience. For example, consider the following questions:

• Did you need to schedule more preparation time before the meeting?
• Did you need to keep a better eye on the clock and/or assign a timekeeper?
• Was the presentation too long?
• Did a discussion topic become too broad or go off on a tangent?
• Did you need to rein in a question and answer session?
• Did you need another backup piece of equipment or Plan B?
• Was there some disruption that could have been avoided?

Again, use the above questions to help you uncover any stumbling blocks from your recent experience.

Once you identify the challenges you faced in meeting management, you can take concrete steps to create suitable solutions.

Looking for some ideas to get you started? Consider the following:

• Schedule time in your calendar to plan your meeting agenda
• Select and assign a time keeper for your meeting
• Practice rehearsing your presentation with your time keeper
• Create a plan to deal with disruptive meeting attendees
• Put a limit on the length of a question and answer session
• Have a backup plan in place in case of equipment failure or delays
• Look for ways to minimize distractions and interruptions during the meeting

Learn skills for better time management at work

Time management is a skill that needs to be learned, practiced, and refined every single day.

My time management guide will teach you how to run efficient meetings, plan projects, and make time in your calendar.

If you want me to help you better manage your time at work so you can get more done with less stress, then check out my time management coaching services. Book a strategy session with me today!

How about you? What steps are you going to take to ensure your meeting ends on time? Join the conversation and leave a comment below!