Meeting agendas can help you plan more effective meetings that run on time and address the issues that need to be discussed. An agenda can help all members of a meeting prepare ahead of time, and will also help maintain focus during the meeting. Time that you spend planning a meeting agenda will almost certainly result in saving time for all meeting participants, since the agenda will give you a clear set of topics, objectives and time frames.

Meeting agendas do not just have to be lists of topics. In fact, many agendas are far more detailed, and can even include how long you have allotted to a topic before you will move on.

Here are some parts of an agenda that you may wish to include when you are planning your own meeting:

• Items are topics to be considered. Before you place an item on an agenda, make sure that the people in the meeting are qualified to consider the item and then reach an actionable conclusion.

• Priorities indicate how important items are. This is totally subjective, but you should generally avoid giving anything "low" priority or it will simply never be discussed. You can use priority to help you determine how much time should be spend on an item.

• Desired Outcomes let people know what you are hoping to accomplish. If you do not want to tell the meeting participants your personal goals, then you can use outcomes like "reach a conclusion on the Richards account and move forward with electing a leader in that team."

• Time is simply a projection of how much time you are willing to give an item in order to achieve a desired outcome. If you like, you can use time as an ideal set of goals, or you can use the time markers to keep the meeting running on track and to be sure that you cover everything. If you have hard time cut-offs, however, you should be prepared to not finish some items. This may be okay, but generally you will want to wind up discussion in time to reach a meaningful conclusion.