Have you ever sat in a meeting wondering whether it was really worthwhile? Of course you have. Now you can easily find out.

The Center for Global Development's Meet-N-Meter tallies the person-hour cost of a meeting and converts the dollars into development-related items such as insecticide-treated bed nets, vaccines, and school uniforms.

Next time you're stuck in meeting of questionable value, take out Meet-N-Meter, figure the opportunity cost of the meeting in some real-world equivalents that matter to poor people, and email the results to your colleagues.

Don't stop having meetings, just start having them better.