MEETINGS
You should not schedule meetings that last more than an hour, or 90 minutes at the most. There are tremendous diminishing returns in lengthier meetings. When you only have an hour, you don't waste time on nonproductive tangents.
You also need to think about how you structure the meeting. When meeting materials arrive in your email five minutes before the meeting starts, it's a signal that the person in charge hasn't laid the groundwork for a productive use of time. There should be adequate time in advance for everyone to prepare for a thoughtful discussion.
All meetings should have an effective close.
People should think, "What are the to-dos, and who's going to do them?" Senior executives tend to think that they can accomplish this by just telling people what to do. But there's a big difference between assigning a task to be completed by next Tuesday vs. introducing a challenge, getting buy-in on addressing that challenge, and having everyone come together on a way it can get done by a mutually agreed deadline.
Professor Robert Pozen in his new book, Extreme
Productivity: Boost Your Results, Reduce Your Hours
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