Lunchtime Links: Work on Your Addiction To Meetings

Another meeting. You feel like you have to be there. But, for some reason, your schedule keeps sliding away. What can you do?

That and more in today’s Lunchtime Links:

Admit you have a problem: Do you find yourself going to too many meetings and, as a result, not having enough time to lead? Elizabeth Grace Saunders, an author and consultant, has some time-management strategies to keep in mind so you can—once and for all—break your addiction to meetings  (opens in a new tab). “Do you measure your value by how many meetings you’ve been invited to? Going to a lot of meetings may make you feel important, but it’s not a good way to allocate your time,” she writes on the Harvard Business Review Blog Network. “Before accepting a meeting invite, ask yourself, ‘Do I really need to attend?’ ” The result: “By cutting down on the number of meetings you’re in, you’ll free the people around you to make reasonable choices without always looking to you for input.”

Keep event costs down: If you’re trying to ensure that your next event doesn’t go over budget, BusyEvent’s blog has a few ideas  (opens in a new tab). Here’s a key one: booking on a weekday, rather than a weekend. “Booking on a weekday is likely to result in cheaper rates, and for some events, including business conferences and corporate parties, an event nearby and after work will be much more ideal for guests who can make their way over after clocking out,” writes Nicolette Anderson, the company’s director of social marketing. Other ideas include bringing your own drinks and choosing nontraditional venues.

Create killer nonprofit videos: Maybe you already have the photo thing down (opens in a new tab) but are finding videos a little harder to do. Fortunately, Kivi Leroux Miller has a great interview with WithinReach’s Anna Zimmerman, whose nonprofit put together two successful video projects. Regarding the “Washington’s Cutest Babies” project, shown above, Zimmerman explains: “Although the video was created for a specific audience, we developed it so that it could be used with a wide variety of partners. It’s a powerful and moving video that helped us to raise additional money for our program as a result of showing it to the group of stakeholders.” Hop over to Kivi’s Nonprofit Communications Blog to read the  (opens in a new tab) two-part interview  (opens in a new tab).

What’s on your RSS feed today? Let us know what you’re reading in the comments.

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