When Are You Most Productive?

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USA Today’s Snapshot survey shows that the most productive hours in an employees’ day are 8 a.m.-12noon. The least productive hours are 2 p.m.-6 p.m. Which begs the question, what time of day do you hold meetings?

Why not use USA Today’s data to your advantage. We suggest you boycott meeting in the morning to allow people to focus during their most productive hours. Schedule meetings and conference calls for the afternoons.

At this point we have to ask the question, is your meeting a “must “ or a “nice to”? If you’re anything like most of the teams we consult with, meetings bog you down—people have a tendency to meet to schedule the real meeting and then they go to the meeting after the meeting and then …ugh!

Think twice before you host or request a meeting. Can your needs be met through an online conversation? When an in-person meeting is truly the only way to accomplish your goals here are a few “meeting musts.”

  • Prepare a detailed agenda with clear start and stop times
  • Send it out in advance
  • Ask everyone for input by a certain date/time
  • Challenge participants to come prepared
  • Always, always, always start on time (otherwise you enable late behavior)
  • Always, always, always end on time (otherwise you devalue other commitments)

Any other meeting tips are welcome!