The humble clock has a lot to answer for…
The structure of the day is broken down into hours. Hours are broken down into half hours and quarter hours as well.
There is noting written down that meetings can’t be 47 minutes long, 8 minutes or even 96 minutes. However the systems we use to plan and book meetings make the assumption that meetings start on the hour, the half hour and occasionally on the quarter. This means that meetings (from my experience) are usually either thirty minutes and sixty minutes. Most meetings I attend don’t need to be always that length. Sometimes people keep going to the end of the hour, other times people finish and “give you time back”.
What I find that can result in me waiting around for the next meeting, not sure if I should start something new, get into an existing task, or go and make some coffee.
For me the problem is exacerbated with my hybrid working. When I am in the office I can make the most of those gaps by having a chat with colleagues. When I am working from home, that option isn’t available.
I am not sure what the solution is. I think one of the solutions is to have less meetings, and when you have meetings, plan and organise them to make the best use of the time.
Now you read this, you’ve got some time back…