Meetings impact how and when we work. In 2021, 55% of people got less than two hours of deep work done per day and 66% of teams had to work overtime as a result of too many meetings. When your day is full of meetings, it leaves no time to focus on actual work or think about the bigger picture.
Ready for fewer meetings and a more productive day? Here are ways to free up your time:
- Review your calendar. Each Friday, spend an hour looking at the week ahead and scan for where you aren’t needed or can reduce a meeting to less time.
- Leverage technology, such as Microsoft Planner or Asana, to create, assign and track progress on tasks. This can eliminate status calls.
- If there is no meeting agenda, cancel the meeting.
- Who actually needs to be there? Designate invitees as required or optional so they can choose how to best spend their time.
- Implement “no meeting” times. At an organizational level, consider blocking off one afternoon or day per week where no meetings can be scheduled. At Pivot, we do no meeting Fridays.
When you need to meet, stay focused and keep your meetings on schedule:
- Utilize the 25/50 rule. Utilize 25 and 50-minute meetings rather than 30 and 60-minute meetings. This way you have a small break to prepare for the next call, grab a snack or take a brain break.
- Was someone not able to make it? Rather than holding a second meeting to fill them in, record your meeting so they can watch it on their own time.
- Use Together mode in Teams meetings to reduce the cognitive load of viewing faces in different orientations on the screen. This tool gives everyone the same background so it feels like you are in one room together.
