{"id":28,"date":"2010-09-15T08:30:41","date_gmt":"2010-09-15T12:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.meetingcaptain.com\/?p=28"},"modified":"2010-09-13T16:34:11","modified_gmt":"2010-09-13T20:34:11","slug":"staying-awake-during-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.meetingcaptain.com\/?p=28","title":{"rendered":"Staying Awake during Meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"

by John J. Walters<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been writing a lot of posts about how to make meetings the best they can be for meeting organizers.\u00c2\u00a0 But what about those unfortunate souls who get dragged into boring meetings from which there is no escape?\u00c2\u00a0 How do you keep yourself from screaming?\u00c2\u00a0 Often, we zone out, but the problem with that is it runs the risk of us zoning out so completely that we fall asleep.<\/p>\n

So I did a quick Google search for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153staying awake during meetings\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and found a few short articles full of hints and tips to keep your mind from snoozing away during your next boring business meeting.\u00c2\u00a0 Most of them gave a bunch of simple tricks<\/a> you can do to keep yourself awake that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure we all figured out when we were in college.\u00c2\u00a0 Several of them recommended pretending to have to go to the bathroom<\/a> so you have an excuse to leave the room.<\/p>\n

Two articles stood out from the rest.\u00c2\u00a0 One because it was such a towering example of a bad idea that I feel like I just have to pass it along so that you too will be tempted the next time you get dragged into a corporate crap-fest.\u00c2\u00a0 The other because it actually gave some very helpful hints on what you should do to not only get through the meeting but to stand out from the rest of the herd at work and get noticed by your boss.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll start with the silly one<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 In a nutshell, it gives simple rules for how to play a game that basically amounts to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153corporate-speak bingo.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Not only would this be a terrible idea that might get you fired, it also requires a small amount of prep-work that workers would presumably do instead of actually preparing for the meeting.\u00c2\u00a0 I do have to give it some credit, though: it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clever, creative, and if you actually find yourself in a meeting where people are talking like this then I feel deeply sorry for you.<\/p>\n

On to the good one<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 This one has a couple generic hints and tips but also advises workers to do such unconventional things as prepare in advance, take careful notes, and participate.\u00c2\u00a0 It advises that the best way to get through a boring meeting is to do everything you can to make it meaningful, productive, and worthwhile.\u00c2\u00a0 Imagine that!<\/p>\n

Of course, these tips won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always work.\u00c2\u00a0 Sometimes you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re tired or you get dragged into a meeting at the last minute that has nothing to do with you.\u00c2\u00a0 In that case, maybe trying out a few of those tips and tricks might be a good idea (because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never a good idea to sack out).\u00c2\u00a0 But if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re frustrated with the kind of meetings that your company keeps having, make every attempt to get involved to make them better.\u00c2\u00a0 If your higher-ups don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to encourage that sort of thing, then maybe it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to start looking for a career elsewhere\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by John J. Walters I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been writing a lot of posts about how to make meetings the best they can be for meeting organizers.\u00c2\u00a0 But what about those unfortunate souls who get dragged into boring meetings from which there is no escape?\u00c2\u00a0 How do you keep yourself from screaming?\u00c2\u00a0 Often, we zone out, but the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.meetingcaptain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.meetingcaptain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.meetingcaptain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.meetingcaptain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.meetingcaptain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.meetingcaptain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.meetingcaptain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.meetingcaptain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.meetingcaptain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}