Walking meetings
My first meeting of the day was a walking meeting with Gary around Astley Park. Walking meetings seem to have four advantages, Gary and I get to avoid the perils of sitting and get some exercise, Gary’s not constantly distracted by the stream of ‘important’ emails that constantly flood his inbox and drive his day and we both benefit from the improved creativity and expansive thinking that comes with walking. Finally, of course, its much more fun.
After that it was back to the office for a couple of strategic reviews which proved to be very fruitful and enjoyable, a coaching session, a planning session and a progress review. Then it was back walking, this time parking up at Rivington Barn and walking along the shore of the resevoir, followed by reading and lunch at the Barn cafe, which is consistently excellent.
Then it was home for an meal out at Toby’s Carvery with Debbie. All in all an excellent day.
I’m planning to build more walking meetings into my routine over the coming weeks, mainly to test whether they are more effective, as well as more fun and better exercise, though its a pity I can’t take a whiteboard with me 🙁
You might not be able to carry a whiteboard, but I’m waiting to see you with a roll of A3!
It’s an interesting idea to see if memory of discussion is stronger, I struggle to remember discussions in an office without aggressively detailed notes, perhaps distractions of laptop screen, monitor, phone, other people working contributes to interfering with the valuable “brain space” to absorb, digest and store discussion. So meetings without notes… Well guess there’s only one way to find out!
of course as someone who can’t concentrate on a meeting and take notes at the same time I have to rely on a combination of my shaky memory and other people to remind me. In practice I generally remember anything that I actually have time to do and forget the rest, hence avoiding an ever expanding to-do list of tasks that never get done!