As a freelancer, your time is your own. This is great when it comes to setting your own schedule and managing your own time. You don’t need to worry about things like core working hours or set office hours, but it also means you don’t get paid for a contracted number of hours like an employee does.

So, as a freelancer, your time is your most valuable asset and it’s important to make every minute count. That doesn’t mean you have to work flat out – don’t forget rest and downtime are critical to productivity and wellbeing too. It just means you need to take measures to optimise your time, including scheduling time-effective meetings that add real value.

As a freelancer, setting up meetings can be a bit of a faff, never mind figuring out agendas beforehand. But don’t worry because we’ve got some tips on ways you can schedule more time-effective meetings so they won’t clog up your whole week.
 

Why are time-effective meetings so important?

Good time management isn’t just an arbitrary addition to a soft skillset. Timekeeping and organisation are essential, especially for freelancers who are juggling so many roles. You’re the business owner, marketer, project manager, and the client relationship manager – just to name a few.

Here’s why time-effective meetings are so crucial:

• You will appear more polished and professional when you can manage time more effectively
• Less time is wasted, which is important when your time can be converted into profit
• You feel more organised and less hassled – and therefore less stressed!
• It becomes easier to give your clients equal treatment, so you don’t end up servicing some more than others
• You can avoid spreading yourself too thin and burning out

Time is precious, so it’s important you use it wisely. Think you could be making better use of your allocated meeting time? Keep reading…
 

Make the most of your meetings

At the end of 2023, Brother UK launched its Meaningful Meeting Manifesto, which included a survey of 2,000 UK office workers on work meetings and their impact on productivity.

• 81% are confident that shorter meetings would achieve the same outcomes
• Waffling (59%), too much small talk (48%), late joiners (31%) and people not paying attention (31%) were flagged as the worst culprits for time-wasting
• 88% agree that timekeeping is important to holding a productive meeting, followed by keeping to a strict agenda (78%) and circulating action notes (74%)

So, let’s dive into our advice on how to optimise your meetings so you can get the most value out of them and reduce the risk of wasting time.
 

Avoid meetings that could be an email instead

You’ve seen the memes and the satirical posts – absolutely nobody wants to sit through a meeting that could have easily been an email, Slack message or phone call instead. Consider if the meeting you’re setting up is really necessary before clicking send on the calendar invite.

For example, if you want to ask your client about some overdue invoices, send them an email instead. That way, you also have an audit trail of the conversation.

Another example is if your client just wants an update on where a project is up to. They may even ask for these on a regular basis. Instead, you could agree to send a weekly project status report via email or another collaboration tool to remove the need for a meeting.

Just try to balance this with good client relationship management. If having a meeting will keep your client sweet, it may be worth the time investment. It’s your call.
 

Give meetings a time limit

According to Harvard Business Review, 30-minute meeting slots are the most effective and help people avoid waffling and get to the point quicker.

So, unless there’s a reason to extend or the nature of the meeting calls for a longer session, try sticking to 30 minutes or less. With a concise time limit, attendees are more likely to get down to business efficiently.

In order to do this, make sure you’re actually scheduling meetings in a digital calendar and sending invites. Don’t just agree on a time via email and set up an impromptu link. Send an invite with clear timings so expectations are managed from the beginning. Some great meeting scheduling tools to check out are:

• Google Calendar
• Calendly
• Flowance

Setting a time will also encourage clients to be prompt. Time is money as a freelancer, and you don’t want your billable minutes to be wasted waiting around for tardy meeting attendees.
 

Create and share an agenda before the meeting

Fail to plan and you’re planning to fail, as the saying goes. Putting an agenda together before the meeting will help keep the topics relevant and the time efficiently managed. Going into a meeting without any kind of plan of action is a recipe for going off-topic and running over.

Compile a short list of bullet points to summarise what will be covered during the meeting and share this ahead of time. That way, the people you’re meeting with have the chance to add their own agenda points and you can adjust the timing in advance rather than having to run over on the spot.

Having a shared agenda also means all attendees can come to the meeting prepared with talking points and any materials that need to be shared. Without preparation, heaps of time can be wasted while people collect their thoughts and search for materials in real-time.
 

Pick your timing

The majority (87%) of Brother UK’s respondents said they are at their best before midday, with 9am-11am proving to be the most productive period.

Figure out when you’re most on the ball and set as many meetings during that timeframe as possible. Leaving an important client meeting until 4pm on Friday when everybody is tired from the week and winding down for the weekend is not the best idea, if it can be avoided.

Another approach you could try is having one or two days per week dedicated to meetings only. That way, you can condense your meeting days and leave the remainder of the week open for full focus and uninterrupted concentration.
 
Looking for more freelancing advice? Head to our hub, where we’ve got a whole host of resources ready for you.