It’s Thursday as I write.  Sitting at my desk this evening and in conversation with my fellow students with Mark Silver at the Heart of Business, I realised how much my mind has been racing this week – trying to keep up with all the commitments I have made and under extra pressure to get things done because I am away next week.  I shall be enjoying 10 days with my mother in Scotland and I’m looking forward to it immensely.  At the same time, my attention in the last few days has been focused on everything that needs to be done before I go away – how crazy to feel so much added pressure because I’m due to go on holiday.

It has been a bit of a mad week.  Last week, I conducted two assessments and I needed to follow up this week.  On Monday, between calls, I started to write my first assessment report which I completed and sent off for peer review on Tuesday in time for an afternoon call (four hours of afternoon call – that’s a long meeting, especially by conference call!).  By the time the meeting finished my assessment report had been returned with comments for my consideration in time for feedback meetings on Thursday.  First, though, I had to write my second report.  To this I devoted the whole of Wednesday, with the exception of a lunchtime call with a completely different client, returning to my final amendments of Report One first thing this (Thursday) morning.  I did this, sent them off to be forwarded to the client, spoke with the assessee’s line manager and then with the person I had assessed.  Tomorrow I shall do the same again with Report Two.  Oh!  And in between I had calls with a colleague about a third client and, yes, I shall be speaking with that third client tomorrow.

All my meetings have been by phone this week and counting them, I have had ten scheduled meetings varying from 30 minutes to four and a half hours in duration.  All this in addition to chunks of work, keeping on top of e-mails and dealing with the kind of surprises that crop up constantly in between.  I want to be clear – I’m not complaining!  I love my work – every bit of it!  I feel so privileged to support the progress of men and women into increasingly senior roles.  (And I also enjoyed – immensely – helping my niece to make ginger-bread men when she came to see me on Wednesday evening, but that’s another story).

Nonetheless, this week reminded me forcefully of one aspect of my clients’ lives which is both challenging and relentlessly ongoing – meetings.  How often do you feel as if your calendar is running you and not the other way around?  Even at the most senior levels, many people find they are called to meetings which they feel they can’t refuse.  And yes, it’s also true that the same people are inviting others to meetings which those others feel they can’t refuse.  And amongst those meetings some seem pointless and others downright painful.

Funny then, that in the same week that I have been running to keep up in between meetings, Mark Silver (whom I mention above) wrote a posting on his blog entitled Beets, miserable meetings and your micro-business.  Mark’s clients are micropreneurs like me and his posting is written with this in mind.  Still, it contains a thread of gold which is of equal value no matter what your business.  Follow this link if you want to read it – at the very least, you’ll find a book recommendation that may be of interest.

And yes, I look forward to meeting you again when I return from my holiday.