theseMeetings are costly, not only in terms of people’s salaries, but also on cognitive load, energy, and morale. Meetings are interruptive, diverting people’s attention from the core work that often requires high focus. Alongside email, meetings have consistently been rated by employees as the worst pain point for decades.
In the context of remote work during a pandemic, when stress and anxieties are already high for so many people, it makes sense to actively decrease the amount of time we spend in meetings.
Depending on your job role, you may be able to simply get out of some meetings, whether by canceling them or ditching them. There’s also the matter of “Should this meeting have been an email?” If the content of a meeting could be communicated more efficiently in a different way, do not, I repeat do not, hold a meeting.
What about the meetings you just can’t skip? After all, some meetings really are valuable and important. Meetings allow people to get to know one another, which creates camaraderie. In remote work in particular, meetings help build trust. When an urgent matter is at hand and speed is an issue, meetings are typically the fastest way for people to identify problems and make decisions. Some meetings provide clarity in a way that other communication methods can’t.
Most people know that when you absolutely must have a meeting, the meeting should have an agenda with objectives, that the agenda should be circulated in advance, or that you can use apps to help you hold better meetings, blah, blah, blah. Few people bother with these steps. Why not look to other ways to make meetings more efficient and cut down on the amount of time you spend in meetings? Here are four strategies for how to do it.
1. Hold Half the Meeting Before the Meeting
Instead of holding a one-hour meeting, schedule a 30-minute (or better, 20-minute) meeting and give all the meeting attendees a way to participate in the content or purpose before the actual meeting. This strategy is not only helpful for cutting down the meeting time, it also allows introverts and others to participate in ways that may be easier and more comfortable than speaking up in a meeting
How do you do it? Use an asynchronous collaboration tool, such as a shared document or an online whiteboard, where people can read the agenda, write down questions, brainstorm ideas, or do whatever else you want them to do to “participate” in the meeting. When you give people a place to read, digest, comment, brainstorm, and think asynchronously, when they’re not put on the spot, they can take their time doing it. They can also do it at a time that’s best for them and won’t interrupt their core work.
Some apps you might consider using are Miro, Mural, Conceptboard (shown), Google Workspace apps such as Google Docs, and even collaborative note-taking apps like Microsoft OneNote.
By giving people a place to record their ideas before the actual meeting, you’ll get better participation from anyone who might not otherwise speak up. More importantly, you should be able to cut the actual meeting time significantly, possibly in half, because so much work has been done in advance.
This strategy doesn’t work for every type of meeting, but it’s ideal for meetings in which all participants should contribute, such as a brainstorming meeting or a kickoff meeting for a new product.
2. Assign a Timekeeper
Assign a timekeeper, and be sure to introduce that person as the meeting timekeeper. The timekeeper is responsible for making sure that the meeting starts and ends on time, and that any segments that should be kept to a time limit are.
For starting on time, simply introducing the timekeeper is a great way to do it. “Phil will be the timekeeper in today’s meeting. Let’s make Phil’s job easy and get started right away.”
For ending on time, the timekeeper can announce when five, two, or one minute is remaining, depending on the vibe and importance of the meeting.
For managing segments, it’s easiest to give an example. Let’s say you’re planning a meeting where people need to introduce themselves. You might say, “Please introduce yourself and explain why you’re in this meeting in about 15 seconds. Jill is our timekeeper today. Jill, please set your timer to chime after 15 seconds so we can stick to the schedule.” That way, Jill doesn’t have to feel bad for cutting someone off and telling them to wrap it up. The chime does the work.
You can use similar wording when you have segments of a meeting for different people to present their ideas or information.
Timer apps, websites, and plugins are a dime a dozen. Use the stock app on your phone or a free website, like vclock.com (shown).
3. Ask for Feedback on Recurring Meetings
Here’s a strategy to help you cut down on the duration of recurring meetings: Ask the attendees for feedback. It’s most effective with recurring meetings, such as standing team meetings and weekly or monthly check-ins, because the format and some of the topics are usually the same each time.
After a meeting, ask for specific feedback, such as:
- Was that meeting longer than it needed to be? Was it too short? Did we not cover something you wanted to discuss?
- What did we not need to spend so much time on?
- Were there any parts of the meeting that would have been better if we had done them another way, such as by brainstorming in a shared document?
The attendees of your meetings may very well have excellent ideas for how to improve the meeting, whether that means making it shorter, changing the format, or both.
4. Customize Your One-on-Ones
Your organization might have a norm for one-on-one meetings, meaning recurring meetings between an employee and manager. They are often held once a week, usually for anywhere from a half hour to 45 minutes. But who’s to say that schedule is ideal for you?
With one-on-ones, the two parties can and should have an open dialogue about whether the frequency and duration of the meetings is helpful and effective. A half hour meeting every other week may be all you need. A 15-minute weekly check-in might be better for you.
There’s no reason one-on-ones should be longer or more frequent than is necessary for either party. Try bringing up this topic in your next one-on-one, and see if you and your counterpart can come to an agreement about the ideal amount of time to spend together.
Shorter, More Efficient Meetings
Not every meeting can be canceled. Not every meeting should be shorter than you originally anticipated, either, depending on its purpose and desired outcome. But certainly the majority of meetings that knowledge workers have could take less time and be more efficient. By actively focusing on cutting down the amount of time your meetings take, you’ll alleviate a good amount of the pain caused by meetings. More importantly, your colleagues will thank you.
