All team leaders face the problem of organizing meetings, as most often they take more time than was expected and they don't have enough time to accomplish all other important and urgent tasks that were planned. Meetings can be great time wasters if not to plan them properly. Here are several techniques that can help team leaders to plan meetings properly and save their time:

• Start with the plan. Think about the tasks that must be discussed and the problems that must be resolved and write them down. So, you will get a clear picture of the aim of the meeting.
• Set priority to each item in your plan to see what tasks must be discussed first and then set deadline to each item, so you can plan the time period this meeting can take.
• Inform all team members who will take part in this meeting about its date, time and the information they need to perform on this meeting in advance.
• Send notifications about the meeting via e-mail to all participants a couple of hours before it begins, so they won't forget about it.
• Start and finish the meeting on time. If some of the participants want to discuss some additional details of one of the items, you can discuss them privately after the meeting at the most appropriate time and keep your meeting along.

So, following these techniques, you will learn how to plan your meeting properly and save your time. However, you need a tool where you can keep your plan with all its tasks and details. Such tool is VIP Team To Do List. It allows creating a task list, setting priorities, setting deadlines, adding notes to your tasks, setting reminder, so you won't forget about the task you need to accomplish first. Also, if you need to send notifications or tasks to other persons, VIP Team To Do List allows you to send this task or notification to the definite person via e-mail, so, you can plan your meeting properly and save your time.

See also: Project Management Skills