Unless you are very lucky (or just very young), you've most likely given up precious hours of your life to meetings that either ran way too long, or didn't need to happen in the first place.

The goal of brainstorming is to find possible solutions to a problem, but the process often becomes a platform for the outspoken, who offer the same perspective time and time again. Instead, ask everyone to generate more questions about the problem so you get a better understanding of what it really is. This counterintuitive method from Hal Gregersen, the executive director of the MIT Leadership Center, gets everyone thinking and participating, and can turn a lacklustre brainstorming session into something far more effective.

The only thing worse than going to meetings is scheduling them. You have to check with everyone's availability, find a time and location that works, send out an invitation, and then bug people until they RSVP. It actually takes about 17 minutes to schedule a single meeting, according to x.ai, a company focused on solving the issue with artificial intelligence.

In a wild coincidence I bought my partner a new notebook (she's a bit of an office stationery addict) a new notebook that had "I survived another meeting that should have been an email" emblazoned across the cover. It turns out this is one of Elon Musk's tactics for cutting through dumb meetings.

Elevator Pitch is a regular feature on Lifehacker where we profile startups and new companies and pick their brains for entrepreneurial advice. This week, we're talking with Jack Zhang, co-founder and CEO of cross-border payment platform Airwallex.

You never want a meeting dominated by a single person. Sure, it's important someone takes charge to guide the discussion. But the point of a meeting is collaboration and if there's no exchange of ideas, no criticism, then something's gone wrong. However, all it takes is the right words and tone if you need to interject, without coming off as impolite.

Elevator pitches are a great way to condense a complex idea into a small amount of time so you can get your startup project in front of someone who matters. Author Seth Godin recommends you pitch for a meeting, not the idea itself.

iOS: Ever been curious about exactly how much the men and women at your office speak during a meeting? GenderEQ can track that and break it down into percentages.

Meetings can be a time drain, especially ones that you don't really need to attend but you show up because you can't seem to say "no" to them. Here are three legitimate excuses you can use the next time you want to skip out on a superfluous meeting.

You didn’t get a calendar alert; you got one while you were distracted by something else; you planned to put together a presentation last night and instead fell asleep on the couch. The truth is, you’re the only one who cares about your excuse for being unprepared for a meeting.

Michael Fearne is an expert LEGO® Serious Play®. Yes, you read that correctly. Fearne said Lego is the key to productive business meetings.

Daniel Zhang, CEO of the multi-billion-dollar online marketplace company Alibaba, thinks meetings are "among the worst formats for sharing information".

We're all guilty of it: the boss calls a team meeting during a busy time of the day. While you're waiting for things to get started, you surreptitiously check your email. Then you start replying. Before you know it, the meeting is in full swing and you're only half-listening as you continue to "multitask" on your phone or laptop. According to business website Entrepreneur, this is a terrible habit that we all need to break.

"I've been giving it some thought," I said in a team meeting at one of my previous jobs, "And I really think the partner listings on our website would function better if we -- " "Let me jump in," interjected one of my co-workers, before I was even able to finish my thought and put my idea out on the table.

Meetings where decisions are made but no one wants to be accountable for them are the worst meetings. Keep that "action to decision" ratio low by ending every meeting with an "accountability summary" everyone gets afterwards, so everyone knows what they're responsible for.

Whether you host or just have to attend regular meetings, you can make them more efficient by clarifying the type of meeting it is. You'll get everyone on the same page, your meeting will be more productive and you'll spend the time talking about what's important.

You should do your best to avoid cancelling meetings, but life gets in the way sometimes. If you do you have to reschedule a meeting with someone, take ownership of the mishap and be the one to offer new meeting times.

We've established that Tuesdays are the most productive day of the week, so it makes sense that a meeting on Tuesday would be best for a productive, useful meeting. And right after lunch is the best time. Tuesdays, 2:30PM local time, is your ideal time, based on a survey that collected over two million responses.

Few things irritate office workers more than booking a meeting right over lunch. Sure, it may be the only time most people's calendars are open, but that's probably because everyone's trying to get out of the office and have a meal. The solution is simple: don't schedule lunch meetings unless you're buying lunch.