I have a whole series of articles cooking in my head about personal productivity: how to go paperless, how to use an iPad to tame your to-do list, how to regain your sanity by cleaning up your office, and more. But before we tackle any of that, we need to address a critical question:

What's the point?

There is a simple trick to standing out during your meetings and continuing to impress afterward. It's so simple that it's astounding that not very many people do it. What's the trick? Schedule time in your calendar to prepare for and follow-up from meetings. When you schedule a meeting, you should actually add three appointments to your calendar.