If your company meetings quickly turn into a free-for-all conversation hour, you're not alone. Plenty of workers leave a meeting each day claiming that it was a complete waste of time, so why even bother? Meetings are supposed to be held with a specific purpose. Whether it's to brainstorm for ideas, assign tasks, or inform the group, there's a goal to achieve. For the most part, an agenda can be used to help you do just that.

Using an agenda can help your meetings stay on task given that the chairperson can hold their ground. While there are always plenty of opportunities to veer off subject, the agenda prepares participants for the items to be discussed.

Before you distribute your agenda to participants, collaborate with all of them to explain there will be a meeting, at a specified time, in a specified location. Then, ask them to accept or decline these meeting details. At this point, you may also ask them to submit their requests to add an agenda item (which should be no later than 3 days before the meeting). They will then submit a request for a topic to be discussed that they feel is important. Of course, if you feel the item is not in-line with your current agenda, you do not have to accept it. Once you've gotten your agenda items together, both from topics already approved between you and your boss, as well as the items requested to be added from participants, you'll have to create the actual agenda.

To prepare your agenda, follow these simple steps:

The top right hand corner of your paper should state in large bold letters: Agenda

The next line should state your meeting's title on the left hand side. If the meeting doesn't have a title, you can insert your department name or the general idea of what your meeting is about.

Next line, insert the date of the meeting.

Next line, insert the time of the meeting. Example: 8:00am - 12:00pm.

The next line should tell who the meeting was called by. It should be displayed like the following:

Meeting called by: Kelly Smith

The line after should be headed: Attendees. Each attendee should be listed here according to who has accepted your invitation.

The next two lines list any readings participants should do before the meeting, as well as any materials they should bring with them. If none are necessary, you may leave this information out.

After the above information is added to the agenda, you will want to separate it from the rest of the information on the agenda with a line or some other sort of divider.

Each line after the partition is dedicated to the time each discussion will take place, the items to be discussed and where. It should look like this:

• 8:00am - 9:00am John Doe reports on quarterly losses Conference room B
• 9:00am - 9:45am Jane Doe - monthly project Conference room B

You should repeat this for each minute that the meeting is in session and always include the details of each item.

Be sure to include any special instructions at the bottom of the agenda.

To save time in creating your own agenda, you can use our template. Remove our logo at the bottom and insert your own.

Distribution

Once you've completed your agenda, you'll have to distribute it. You'll want to send it to your attendees at least 2 days in advance. This will allow your participants time to prepare materials as well think of ideas for the discussion items. Sending it via email is perhaps the easiest way to distribute the agenda to your attendees. You can attach a word document that they can easily print out and bring with them to the meeting. Of course, in many cases, simply printing them out yourself and hand delivering them to your participants is just as effective; however, it can sometimes cause delays if the attendees aren't located in your office. The choice is really up to you as to how you get it to them, but be sure they have ample notice in case anything goes wrong.

Creating a meeting agenda is incredibly helpful in facilitating an atmosphere that has purpose and stays on task. It will ultimately be up to your meeting chairperson to keep the group focused, but with the agenda, everyone will have clear documentation of how and where the meeting is to go. Be precise with the agenda details and you'll actually be able to hold a meaningful, effective meeting.