Answer this question about meetings for the chance to appear on the DevDiscuss podcast!

My answer is a bit longer because I try to give a complete picture on my approach.

Basic question: meeting or email?

Will a short call or email do it instead of a meeting?
Is the meeting really important?
If not, call, walk up to someone or write an email.

Specify topic

Use a short, but concise title for the meeting, from which the topic and goal are already well recognizable.

Good:

• Determine handling of external interface connections
• Develop definition of meeting rules
• Explain and document project proposal process ...

Bad:

• Meeting
• Short talk regarding project XYZ
• Common testing
• Interfaces ...

Agenda: define the goal

Describe what the meeting is about.
If there are questions or tasks in advance, put them in the description.
Is the meeting a follow-up to a previous meeting? Briefly summarize the last meeting.
Does it require any preparation from the participants? If so, make that clear in the description.
Clearly describe what the goal of the meeting is and specify the expectation:
What is the expected outcome at the end of the meeting?

Timeboxing - time schedule

Think about the time schedule of your meeting based on the agenda and determine times for each item, how long it may take at most. If possible, always plan some buffer at the end, in case it is necessary to overrun a topic. Also, every participant is happy if the meeting ends earlier than planned.

Determine the group of participants

Think carefully about who will be invited to the meeting.
Answer the following questions about each person:

• What does the participant contribute to the meeting/goal achievement? (Why is he needed)
• What will the participant gain from attending the meeting?
• Will he have an active part or is it enough to inform him about the result afterwards?

If you cannot answer any of the questions, the person is most likely not needed for the meeting.

Determine moderator

If it makes sense to have a moderator for the meeting, define one. This can be one of the already invited participants, but also another person whose sole benefit is the role of the moderator. For example deeply discussing technical topics and moderating the meeting at the same time can't be handled by most people.

Sending the invitation

Invite the participants in time and check the acceptances before the meeting starts.

Agendas are very good. And sometimes you have to rein the meeting in and keep it on topic. Sometimes the best thing you can say is: great idea, let's take that offline and then do so.
Also note any decisions and act on them, that avoids another meeting about the meeting you just had.

1. Always have a goal to accomplish and make sure everyone understands it beforehand.
2. End the meeting 5-10 minutes before the nearest half-hour. Gives people a chance to take a short break before the next thing.
3. Before adjourning, write down any decisions that the group made and any next steps that people need to do. Make sure each of those next steps is clearly owned by one person and has an expected timeframe.
4. At a more macro level: if you suspect that a meeting might not be serving your team well something you may be able to try is to simply stop holding the meeting. You can trust your team to find ways to fulfill the needs that the meeting was intended to meet in the way that is best for them, and if you end up having a new meeting anyway there's a good chance that it will be more focused and better understood.

As a freelance developer, the best meetings will always be those meetings that have a clear objective and the email exchange that need further discussion that should be done over zoom, instead of email.

If you need to meet to make a decision on some topic, try to find other ways to decide that do not imply meeting.

If you need to meet to perform some routine or process make sure that the agenda is cristal clear and that everyone knows how to prepare the meeting so that it can be reduced at the very minimum.

If you are not interacting in the meeting you should not be in the meeting.

Make meeting agenda (before the meeting) and share meeting notes(after the meeting)

Use a timer that shows how much money you're wasting. There's lots of software alternatives: google "meeting cost timer"