Brad Feld, co-founder and managing director at Boulder, Colo.-based firm Foundry Group, has a few hacks that could help you make the most of your work day.
Feld's most recent blog post focuses on tips for avoiding long rambling meetings, but there are a few other worthwhile insights as well. Here are some of the highlights:
Schedule all meetings for 30 minutes. According to Feld, 30 minutes is the perfect time allotment to fit in all of the important points in a meeting while keeping your day moving. Feld also notes you should consider ending meetings early. If you close a meeting when you feel it's done or set a specific limit like 30 minutes, you'll cut out pointless chatter such as intros and catch-ups.
Consider going on a walk instead of booking a meeting room. Feld says walks are excellent for longer, more thoughtful discussions. He takes the same route with each walk, and depending on how long the conversation takes he circles that loop one or several times. This makes it easy to extend a meeting or cut it off early.
Schedule all phone calls to keep your phone from constantly ringing. If you schedule all of your calls, you'll know exactly when to expect them, which can help keep your day in order. Only high priority calls interrupt Feld from whatever he's doing, which prevents him from being distracted with calls all day.