Meeting Time Is Skyrocketing. Here Are Six Microsteps to Help.

Improve your meeting etiquette and reclaim your time.

More and more, our working hours are taken up by meetings, with little time left to do our actual work. Since February 2020, the average time spent in meetings has gone up 252%. But unfortunately, more meetings doesn’t equal more productivity. Microsoft’s Human Factors Labs found that attending back-to-back meetings with no breaks diminishes our ability to focus and be engaged and fatigue in virtual meetings sets in after about 30 minutes. And a survey by Harvard Business School and Boston University found that employee productivity increasedby more than 70% when meetings were reduced by 40%.

So how do we make the most of our meetings? Here are six Microsteps to help you do just that:

Before scheduling a meeting, ask yourself, “Could this be an email?”

We often book meetings without considering the strain it might put on others’ time and energy. Try communicating via email first, and only escalate to a meeting if absolutely necessary.

Shorten your meetings by 5 to 10 minutes.

Who says every meeting has to end on the hour? No one! You’ll use the time more efficiently and give people time back to work or recharge. 

Include a clear agenda and desired outcome on every meeting invite.

If you’re asking for people’s time, show them the respect of thinking through your objectives. If you can’t come up with objectives, cancel! 

Start your meeting with a Thrive Reset. 

Instead of getting right to business, invite a team member to share their Personal Reset. It’s amazing how much we can learn about each other in 60 seconds – and how a moment of connection can set us up for successful collaboration.

Rotate meeting times when working across time zones.

This way, every group has an equal opportunity for the most and least convenient times to meet. If one group is always making the sacrifice, that’s a problem.

Invite a remote meeting attendee to speak first.

This gesture will help any remote employees feel like they are part of the team, even if they can’t be there in person.