How to make meetings more effective

As software developers, meetings are one of the most important responsibilities we have, it is common to see meetings as boring and routine probably because we just want to program all day without interruptions, but despite this, we must learn to make the most of all the meetings, as it is a space to communicate and express yourself. Here are some tips that have helped me:

Know when to have meetings: Many times we want to have a meeting because it is easier to communicate by speaking than in writing. One of the problems with meetings is that they reduce productivity, it has happened to me that I am very concentrated doing a task, and out of nowhere, someone wants to do a meeting. Going to the meeting (which most likely could have been avoided) and then continuing with what was being done causes a lot of loss of concentration. There are times when I have the best environment to program and I want to make the most of it without interruptions.

For this reason, we must know when to hold meetings and when it can be avoided by a simple message. Something that I like about the messages, unlike the meetings, is that they require us to be more direct and concise with what we want to express because we do not have the same freedom when speaking

Write an agenda: Having an agenda is very useful, especially when you are in a meeting with an English-speaking client. You don’t necessarily have to write it, what I prefer to do is practice what I am going to say in the meeting, in this way I am creating the order in which I am going to say things. There is nothing more frustrating than being in a meeting and having the person speaking make a pause or use a lot of filler words because they are not sure what they want to say. I’m sure everyone in the meeting wants it to end, and having an agenda can save us a lot of unnecessary time.

Take notes in every meeting: There are two main reasons why we do not take notes: because we think we have a super memory that is capable of retaining any type of information or because we trust that some coworker will take notes. There is nothing more embarrassing than writing a message to the client asking about something that was said in the meeting. What is the purpose of the meeting if we forget what was discussed and end up sending a message to the client?