Where's the Joy?

There are a couple of people in my circle trying to manipulate me.
And there has been a void in my life, a notable absence, of joy. The two are related.
I need to disassemble things and take a good look and see if I can correct the situation.

Meetings

In my position, meetings usually prevent me from completing work and add to my task list. For other people, it seems that the meeting is what they consider working. Tangible versus intangible. You could argue that being a leader requires more meetings - that it informs the leaders, and is an environment of idea generation. Sometimes, it prompts people to be prepared for their boss, which is a good thing. My experience is that most meetings don't need to be held, and it's unfortunate if it takes those meetings to prod some people into being productive.

And while leaders tend to have more meetings, naturally, I believe if all they are doing is having meetings, something isn't right.

But, hey, I'm no Jack Handy.

Zones

Man, time zones suck. I miss the universal nature of the 24-hour clock, be it GMT or Zulu.