Walk Into Every Meeting Prepared
Five minutes of prep beats an hour of recovery. Ask for the who, the history, and the one open question before each meeting, and you lead it instead of catching up.
TLDR
The difference between a meeting you lead and one you merely attend usually comes down to five minutes nobody put on the calendar.
Three questions, every time
Before any meeting, get answers to the same three things:
- Who is in the room, really? Names, roles, and the last thing you discussed with them.
- What is the history? A short recap of the thread or the previous call.
- What is the one open question? The decision this meeting exists to resolve.
When prep is a one-line request rather than a research project, you actually do it, every time.
Make it a standing routine
Walk in with the summary, the history, and the open question, and you spend the meeting moving things forward instead of catching up to them.
