Meeting Tip

This post may be a little narrowly-focused, thus not applicable to all readers, but I gave this tip out a couple times at work recently and got good responses, so here it goes...

For years I had this annoying habit/problem at work of leaving my desk for a meeting, getting to the elevator, then realizing I had no idea of the location. I would then have to run back to my desk, unlock my PC, pull up Outlook, and pray that the meeting would be in the my building. Rare occasions would require a walk across the street, in which case I'd only be late by a minute or 2. Once time I figured out at 8:57 a.m. that I was supposed to be at another office 8 miles way at 9:00 a.m. It was then I decided I needed a system.

Another somewhat-unrelated problem I used to have was what do with all those random meeting notes. You know, you attend a meeting, take anywhere from 2 sentences to 2 pages worth of scribbles on a legal pad, and those notes just add up meeting after meeting until you're walking around with a portfolio full of notes that may or may not have names, dates or subjects associated with them. Then these notes end up being a lot less useful than they could have been.

2 birds, 1 stone, etc...

Now each morning, I print out all appointments for the day from Outlook and carry them with me in my portfolio throughout the day. The date/time, subject, attendees, and (most importantly) the location are listed right there at the top of the page. I am never left staring at an elevator wondering if I need to press up or down. Plus, I have a nice sheet of white paper that has all relevant details at the top and, when you count the front and back, has 1 & 3/4 pages worth of blank space. (I prefer taking notes on unlined paper anyways.) Then when I get to my desk, I simply drop the (now clearly-labeled) meeting notes into the relevant project file.

Nothing earth-shattering, but it helps nonetheless.