I am a fan of productivity. Mayor Bloomberg is too. He’s installed big clocks in his open-air office at City Hall. The digital clock starts when the meeting begins. Like a cabby’s meter, the Mayor’s clock is running. It’s called a count-up (not count-down) clock. Time is money.

I am a fan of brevity and short meetings. I am the one in every meeting who will volunteer to pass out the papers. I can’t sit still for longer than an hour. (This week I was in a 4-hour meeting!)

Maybe we should consider the Mayor’s time clock. It’s worked so well for him that he’s installing them in a bunch of conference rooms in City Hall.

The Mayor too is a fan of the stand up meeting. So am I! Not only do I like chatting with my colleagues while leaning on their door frames, I like meeting coworkers in the elevator while traveling to the first floor — exceedingly productive! I LOVE the walking-down-the-hallway-together meeting.

When I am in a walk and talk meeting, I feel like I have an exciting career or am in a TV show, like ER or West Wing. I think good ideas come while you’re walking together — Not so much while you’re sitting across the table from someone.

Lately at lengthy meetings people bring their laptops and you can’t tell if they’re playing Solitaire, IM’ing their friend across the table, or actually taking notes. And what about the people who phone in to meetings? I always wonder What are they doing? Is it possible they’re still in their pajamas? (Damn those lucky telecommuters!)

I learned about the Mayor’s meeting timer from my friend who sent me the link via Facebook. (But, no, I was not checking FB during the 4-hour meeting!) Here was the article: