The meeting and event industry is primarily concerned with mid- to large-scale functions. Rarely do you see a CMP booking a meeting between two people in an office. But a lot of the time, when I mention that I cover the meetings industry, I'm met with disdain—"I hate meetings!" It's safe to say that when someone says she hates meetings, she means small meetings. 

I kind of hate those, too. 

Mike Monteiro at Mule Design knows why these types of meetings are hated—it's the way we're using our calendars. 

"In my experience, most people don’t schedule their work," Monteiro wrote. "They schedule the interruptions that prevent their work from happening. In the case of a business like ours, what clients pay us to make and do happens in the cracks between meetings, or worse, after business hours.

"I’ve yet to see a résumé—and I hope I never do— that lists 'attends meetings well' as a skill," he continued. "Yet attending meetings ends up being a key component of many jobs."

Monteiro suggests scheduling your work on your calendar. 

"People rarely schedule working time," he wrote. "And when they do it’s viewed as second-tier time. It’s interruptible. Meetings trump working time. Why? And why so often are the same people who assign deadlines the same ones reassigning all of your time? Crazymaking. They should be securing work time for you and protecting it fiercely."

I agree with him that we should stop letting other people control our time and that we need a goal-oriented calendar. Read his blog entry for more on taking back your time.