Pastoral Tips On Ending Boring Meetings.

The following comes from LifeChurch.tv’s Craig Groeschel:

“For some reason, when someone schedules an appointment with a pastor, they generally assume it will be a one hour appointment. Most one hour appointments could be handled in much less time. Years ago, I shortened my appointments to 45 minutes. We’d explain ahead of time that I have 45 minutes allotted for the meeting. No one complained. We got to the important stuff a lot faster. After some time, I shortened most meetings to 30 minutes and some to 10 or 15. It is amazing how much important ground you can cover when both parties understand how much time you have to work with and you get right to the important issues.”

Can anyone relate? Seems as though those of us in ministry (and even those not in ministry: Anyone ever had a corporate staff meeting that went forever? Yeah, you feel my pain.) like to have meetings about meetings, meetings to schedule meetings, and meetings to meet about when we last met about meeting! Can I get an “Amen”?

Point being, very few things any more require more than 30-45 minutes of my time. I am really not that important.

What about you? What strategies do you have for cutting down your “non-productive” time? One tip I’ve implemented lately is the “Always-On Away Message”. I keep my away message on and tell people when I’m answering emails that day. For instance:

That way, people know when they are going to get a reply from me. And not a second sooner. (And if I get an incessant emailer, for every one email they send me, they get one back!) What about you? Let’s hear it in the comments.