Meetings are like vegetables: good in moderation but a truck load of them could kill you.  If you find you are attending or calling too many meetings consider the following advice.

Make a list of all meetings.  Go through your calendar for the past month and write down all of the meetings you lead or attended.  You may be surprised by the total number.

 Document each meeting’s purpose.  Every meeting originated to fulfill a need.  The sole objective of calling a meeting should not be to discuss, review or consider anything.   You will certainly do those things but meetings need to have a point.  Add focus by setting a goal like “to determine,” “to finalize [task list, assignments, report, etc.]” and “to approve” [change request, deliverable, document, etc.]. 

Eliminate redundant meetings.  Review your list and narrow it down to the unique purposes.  If you have three different meetings scheduled to address testing, you may only need one.  Combine those that have similar purposes.

Combine similar meetings.  If you have two status meetings with the same individuals but for different projects, combine them.  Perhaps it makes sense to have the Issues meeting combined with the Risks meetings.  An effective status meeting technique for mid-level managers is to hold one meeting with multiple project managers discussing their projects as a group.  This eliminates scheduling half hour meetings with each and wasted time between sessions.  It also makes other PMs aware of the efforts, issues and risks colleagues are facing and how they are solving them.

Use other communication methods.  If your meeting is simply to relay information you might be able to accomplish it better by sending well written emails or documents.  To eliminate the need for one of your testing meetings use a collaboration tool, a document on a shared drive or even a project web site that can be updated by the team as they complete each step.

Thus ends our fight against evil alter egos.  I’m sure our super-hero gene will spawn others to plague us in the future, but until then remember: “with great power comes great responsibility” (Uncle Ben from Spiderman).