Meetings Without Breaks? How to Cope and Reclaim Your Time

In my opinion or maybe just for me , because it's all about me , not really , it's all about you actually I can't sit for a meeting for an hour and then go into another meeting . I just can't do it . Can't do it even the days when meetings were in person . So I guess , in a way , it's easier to to fidget or you get time of movement between meetings .

No , it doesn't , it doesn't matter whether in person or online . An hour's meeting followed by another hour's meeting , like I would never , ever , ever book coaching clients back to back . In fact , I have very strict limits , with gaps in between , because I know how to be at my absolute best for my clients . It matters to me .

It matters to me because I'm highly conscientious and full of integrity and love , which I know you are too , because that's who this podcast is for Highly conscientious , big hearted , highly driven . Is that a nightmare combination ? Maybe , and that feels like a whole nother episode . Maybe , and that feels like a whole nother episode .

However , let's go back to this meeting appointment thing . For me right now , to do a really good job , I need space between clients , and I also limit how many clients I would see in a day . This is very , very , very important to me . And what time of day I see them , so that I can be at my absolute best .

It's very , very important to me because I only want to do an excellent job . That's just how I am . So I set things up in order to enable that to be so . Things up in order to enable that to be so . Now , if I have days where I have too many meetings , too many meetings , even with space between it , doesn't do me any good .

It just doesn't do me any good , and those meetings become of less value , or they could be of high value , but if they're high cost , to me that's not acceptable . So sometimes I can have more meetings than others . It depends on what day it is , what time of year it is , there's all sorts of things .

So right now , I'm having fewer meetings , because that's how it works for me . Autumn , winter that's how I want to do things . I also don't want too many networking meetings at the moment where I'm learning more about new people and opportunities , because for me , this isn't my time of year for starting new projects . That's springtime , spring , summer .

I go bonkers for starting new projects this time of year . I have learned to slow down and to start to complete things . That works for me . It feels risky , because when you slow down to complete things , it feels incredibly indulgent , but it's also deeply satisfying . So if we go back to this , why are meetings run on the hour , every hour or consecutively ?

You can see whether that , for you , resonates . So if that's how you're having , you've either imposed it on yourself or it is imposed on you . What effect does that have on you ? What effect does it ? Because I often talk to people who are about to go on to their next call and they really need a break .

They really need a break , which means that their next call is seeping into their call with me and I just think what a shame , because I was really enjoying this call with you and I value your time and I value mine , but your presence has already left the room . I'm no value mine , but your presence has already left the room .

So what impact does having appointments and meetings consecutively ? What impact does it have on you ? And then think about how often you get overwhelmed and frustrated because you can't quite do all the things you want to do or you're not doing them in a way that you want to do them .

So , whether that's getting overwhelmed and very compressed during the day with all the demands and not having enough space for yourself , so that when you go home you're either very the need to be distant from your partner or those you love so that you've got time to decompress , or snappy , grumpy person comes out or wailing banshee comes out , just because there's

just not been enough space for you in the day . So that's a high cost , right ? So what other costs are there for you about not having space , a break between meetings or appointments ? What are the costs for you ? So some of them are immediate , aren't they ?

That withdrawing from one meeting and not being quite present and then not being fully present and prepared for the next meeting , that's an obvious performance cost . Which , if people aren't really present at the beginning , end of meetings , why are they back to back ? Because it's not working .

It's not working for anyone , because if you have too many meetings and you can't be present fully at the beginning or the end you might as well not be there . It doesn't make any sense . It would be better to run meetings at five past and five to . That would make huge sense .

Or even better , at quarter past the hour and quarter to the hour and shorten meetings because God knows , they go on a bit , don't they ? Goodness me ? Because God knows they go on a bit , don't they ? Goodness me ? I mean , how often have you sat in a really well-run , highly constructive meeting where stuff actually got done and decided and it was worth it ?

It's hard to run and create that kind of meeting right . It takes real skill and it takes a lot of preparation and being fully present for everybody there with a clear idea and intention for using that time . It requires treating that time as precious for lots of reasons .

I mean , it's precious because we're humans and our time is precious and coming together is a precious time because we can create so much when we all come together . But then there's also the other things you could be doing instead . So there's that cost . There's the financial cost isn't there For companies .

How much are your meetings costing you when they're really badly run but the long-term , stressy parts of it where you're just you're not able to shift between the demands of each meeting , or you are because you've learned to cope , because you're really good at your job and you just get on with it and you can kick on through .

You can do that , so you can do it . You can move from one , say . You can move from one meeting to the next and be kind of present or get away with looking like you're present and you're doing a good job . Right , you've got it sussed .

But that that is a high cognitive performance and that requires something from you which , if you're not doing it in a way that is working for you or you , this difficult I'm .

Let me say that again , in order to to do that really effectively , that's very cognitively demanding To be eloquent , to be on it , to have all the information in your head , to be welcoming you know , to run a meeting well , or to be in a meeting and very both efficient and using your words really well and connecting with people , making good arguments , having

access to answers and information Like there's a lot in that to come to be both warm and really on it . There's a lot and it's highly skilled and there are people who can do it , but what's the cost ? So , even if there's no cost in your performance , or no noticeable cost in your performance at the time , is there a cost later in the day ?

And only you know , and it's likely that it's different at different times , but it's worth considering . It's worth considering . Is this costing me and is there anything I can do about it ? Because it doesn't work for me and I can see the damage . So , having burnt out , let me be your terrible warning .

I can see the damage of pushing myself to go from one highly demanding cognitive task to the next , over and over and over again , and I enjoyed the challenge of it because you give my mind something to do and I can't think about anything else . And that's nice . Like it's deeply rewarding to do those kind of hijinks cognitively .

However , the cost for my body was very , very high and that also resulted in costing me parts of myself that I then started to miss , like the ability to switch off and just be present at home , the ability to hug my dogs , even when I got home , because it was just too much . I just needed decompression .

It's almost like I needed to go in a decompression tank , you know , and just be , have like space , give me space for myself and then it ran on , because once I was in that very full on state , I found it difficult .

Even even when I scheduled downtime I found it difficult to actually switch off or I'd be exhausted and have that unwellness , that like achiness , that not quite myself , and I was also more sensitive , more reactive , more , very much more emotionally reactive . It was just hard work .

It was hard work to make sure that life outside of work was as full as work was and I didn't want to give the work up because I loved it and it matters to me . So it's tricky . How do we do this ? How do we have what we want ?

So we want to do deeply satisfying , deeply satisfying work that's well paid , so we can have the life we and we have that part of us satisfied that needs to do something cognitively demanding or creative or working with people , whatever it is . We need that . We need work . Work matters Not just for the money but for the satisfaction .

But we want more than that , because if we didn't want more than that , we wouldn't be frustrated , we wouldn't be overwhelmed , we'd just work all the time .

But we also need to sleep , and sleep is tends to be very affected by this constant pushing through , because in order to go to sleep , you have to let go , and when you're used to pushing all the time , it's difficult to let go . They're the opposite things , aren't they ? You have to let go and trust to sleep , or you just crash because you're so exhausted .

And then there's the whole . Well , actually , over time , this is costing me part of my energy and health , and it's harder to think about things like nutritious food and exercise , something good for me , some sort of movement , a routine that works for me . It's .

It can be hard to fit those in as well , mainly in a headspace way , because often these things can be done very efficiently and not take that much time . But it's not that , it's the headspace .

It can feel too indulgent to then , when you've got lots of pressures at work , to be thinking well , I also need to sort out food for the week that tastes good and is highly nutritious . That can just it's too much , right it's ? I can't think of that as well , or it just becomes another pressure .

Another thing to do , better at another thing , to sort out another problem , to solve , another thing to nail , you know , and I do that , and then there's the whole space for joy . I think for me that's what started to go and it wasn't . Interestingly , it wasn't from not practicing things that should have created that . So , for example , I did very .

I was very good at noticing things like beautiful blossom , the trees , you know , things that are beautiful . I've always been good at that , but it wasn't enough because I was just so squished Everything , everything , just over time . So it's a cumulative effect of just getting used to pushing through and being very single minded in order to do a very demanding job .

It just squished me . So there was less space , less space for joy , and particularly the thing for me is that thing where you lose your ability to laugh easily and have fun . That's it for me , because laughter , that easy laughter , that oh , look at me , I'm doing that stressy pants thing again .

You know that ability to laugh gently at yourself that you're noticing when , noticing when I'm going into that very headstrong , cognitively demanding mode and it's overriding everything else as if it's the most important thing in the world , that that matters , that and it's so .

So what seems to be going on here is that if we push too hard at pushing on through getting into survival mode , even if it's fun , even if it's really rewarding , we're helping lots of other people and we're absolutely nailing it at work .

If we can't switch between modes easily , that's when we lose the ability to have that other mode because we just don't have an off switch . We lose the off switch . If the space between meetings , you can move between those states in minute ways , which make all the difference . But if there isn't space between meetings , you're having to push out for that space .

You're having to be . You're either having to leave a meeting early , which is we all know is really hard , or just turn up a bit late , and I bet most people are just turning up a bit late , which then what you get is a chaotic start where actually people are on the Zoom meeting and they're just waiting for people .

Now , if the meeting started promptly at quarter past the hour and people just got used to being expected to turn up , be fully present and on it and it was run well and it was really welcoming , wouldn't that be better ? Just asking , I don't know . Well , I do know .

I know what works for me , but what works for you , what works for me , but what works for you ? So my rant is this why do meetings run back to back ? Why , what does it do ? What purpose does it serve , what's it costing and is there a better way to do it ?

And if you can't change your appointments because you don't have control over your calendar , how are you coping with the need for a bit of space between appointments ? What are you doing and is there anything else you can do that would be more effective ?

So just a quick plug for the One Minute Marke audio if you haven't already got it . That's a one minute reset which a lot of people do use between meetings because there isn't any time between meetings , because they do run back to back , and that's really helpful . You can get that by going to my website , heidimarke . c o .

uk , or clicking the link underneath this episode , and just give ita go See if it works for you . Tends to create space . So meetings how are they affecting you ? So meetings how are they affecting you If you run your own schedule ? Can you try suggesting different meetings , different meeting start times ? Might be worth a try .

I'd love to know how you get on and if this resonated with you , please do let me know . Have a great week For more resources to help you gently rebel .