Does anyone else have a mental block when it comes to knowing the difference between "bringing a meeting forward" or "pushing a meeting back". When someone tells me that the meeting has been brought forward I always think it means "delayed", which seems to make sense when you're staring at your linear Outlook Calendar

Erm, no, not at all.

Castro, I agree whole-heartedly. Those terms are Americanisms, I believe. I get whiplash just imagining whether a meeting is going to be postponed or rescheduled to an earlier date or time.

In my simple brain it should be:

Pushing a meeting forward (in time)
Bringing a meeting back (in time)

Thats what I'm going to start writing in my emails, to hell with confusionism

The following contributions from Indian English:
prepone a meeting
postpone a meeting

Aaaiiyeeee... that's more confusing than ever!

Easiest solution: cancel the meeting.
As meetings go, chances are it was not needed anyway.

now I'm very confused

I hope this thread doesn't degenerate into a thread of how annoyed someone is that people can not make their meetings and how tired this person is of having to send repeated emails to remind others of meetings and appointments...

If, instead of associating the push forward or (pull) back with time, we associate it with priority then the confusion may become slightly less...

Pushing a meeting forward (in priority) - i.e. an earlier meeting
Bringing a meeting back (in priority) - i.e. a later meeting

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Which begs the question, why are we programmed to accept forward or up as an increase and down or back as a decrease? And why should an arrow pointing up to the sky on a road sign mean you can go forwards along the street? (even though an arrow pointing directly down is also only 90 degrees out )

Perhaps such questions belong in different thread!

I always think of "bringing" something towards you ie making it closer, as opposed to "pushing" it away ie making it further away.

... and is it the same for people who read Arabic (and other languages that use similar writing systems)?

The meeting is in a queue, you either bring the meeting forward to the front of the queue or push it back to the end of the queue.

No problem understanding the concept here. Now if only I could understand why Brits always use the term "white ball on a billiard table" when they really mean "standing in line"..

Nah. We only talk about the bat, not the ball.

Been a Brit all my life and never once heard this expression Can't picture it either whether it's "standing in line" or "waiting in a queue" (and shouldn't it be "pool table" if it's Brit?) Can anyone enlighten me?

Going back to the OP, I agree with the queue scenario, you "bring" something closer i.e. the meeting will be sooner than originally planned and you "push" something further away, ergo the meeting will be later. Try thinking of it in physical rather than Outlook terms

It's a pun...

Look, it's quite simple:

"Leap back in Spring, fall forward in Autumn."
.

Now, now, do not completely confuse non-natives like me. Already I'm wondering whether the dog will wake me up earlier or later soon. Mmm... fall back in autumn. Oh no! The clock will say 6am but the dog thinks it's 7 already.

Oops, my mistake!! Wot I meant was...

"Spring forward in Autumn, Fall backwards and Leap."
.

Is it?.... How's that, then?