Want to own your meetings? Lifesize, the connected video conferencing company, shares how that is possible.

There are a few things people greet with less enthusiasm than scheduling and attending meetings. They’re at the center of almost everything we do as a business, yet somewhere along the way, something went terribly wrong to tarnish their reputation. Why is it that so many of us hate meetings so badly?

The average person works 90,000 hours over their career and is scheduled for nearly 60 meetings every month. With 1 out of 3 minutes of every workday spent in meetings, you can see why resentment builds. It’s easy to blame bad meetings—they can waste away our days, they can keep us late and they tend to pop up right when we’re in the middle of a project.

But the truth is, meetings are absolutely vital to a functioning company. From the smallest startup working out of the owner’s garage to the largest Fortune 100 companies, we all rely on meetings to collaborate on new ideas and make more informed decisions. Taking the steps to own your meetings will go a long way toward hosting the meetings your team will actually love and establishing a productive meeting culture in your organization. So fire up Outlook, or whatever email service you use, and let’s schedule a meeting. Or should we?

The first step in effectively owning your meetings is to know when to meet. And you’re already pretty good at it. For instance, you knew to email the friend who shared this guide with you instead of booking a flight to thank them in person because some communication exchanges are best suited for a text or an email or a phone call.

To determine when and how to meet, start with this question:

Lifesize Meeting Flow Chart