Once upon a time, my colleague stated that there are two precursors for a successful meeting:
- A prepared agenda
- Time tracking code
The latter precursor is particularly relevant in consulting companies where each hour must be recorded meticulously to the correct cost center, and preferably to one that can be billed from the customer.
How often have you been attending to a meeting only to subsequently spend your precious time and not so little social energy in trying to find the correct task and description for billing?
Every change starts with individuals. It has been over 10 years since I started to include a time tracking code in meeting invitations. Frankly, not always but often enough. My colleagues noticed the habit, and a few years later my team adopted it. A few years after that, it became standard practice to complain about meeting invitations that lacked time tracking instructions. Years later, we went a step further and developed a solution that used the time tracking codes from calendar meetings to automatically transfer them into our organization’s ERP system.
Having the time tracking instructions in meeting invitations is a time-saver, and more, a frustration saver.
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