Meeting overload? 5 tips to take back your time
According to Microsoft, meetings have increased by 153% since the pandemic began. That kind of spike has to have some detrimental effects on productivity and the “think time” that all leaders need to be effective.
I often hear people lament, “I don’t have time to do my work,” or “I am in back-to-back meetings all day.” And have you heard about “Meeting Recovery Syndrome?” It’s the period after an ineffective meeting when everyone who was there struggles to get back to productivity. It turns out that just like a bad customer experience, you must go tell others how bad the meeting was. I love this one – and can remember some epically bad meetings that became stories that were told and retold for days.
So, what can be done? Here are a few strategies that work for me to better manage meetings and reduce meeting overload.
Set boundaries, such as start and end times like “I can’t meet before 8 or after 5.” This helps to provide boundaries between work and home life – especially if you’re working remotely.
Consider whether the information can be conveyed in another way. I once had an employee tell me, “Quite frankly, every meeting can be an e-mail, and every e-mail can be a text.” And while that’s not entirely true, ask yourself before setting up a meeting if there’s another way to share the information without interrupting others’ work.
Avoid "Parkinson's Law," which is the concept that work expands to fill whatever time is allotted to it. In other words, a meeting scheduled for an hour will last the hour. Try scheduling shorter meetings with tighter agendas.
Avoid over-inviting. If you’re making decisions during the meeting, have the decision-makers in the room, not everyone who has an interest in the outcome.
Calculate the cost of the meeting in salary. This one can be quite scary. Here’s a simple tool that calculates salary totals as the meeting is happening: https://meetingcost.live/ (You may need to shift it to $).
Know your boundaries and limits – and every time you receive an invitation, think about whether you need to attend. Ask how you will provide value or if you can stay in the loop by reading the minutes afterward. For example, I once spoke to a leader of a monthly meeting that I attended but was rarely on the agenda or called upon to contribute. We set up a system where she let me know which meetings I needed to attend based on the agenda. In exchange, I reviewed the minutes in detail after each meeting. Simple strategies like this can give you back hours and add more “think time” so you can do the work you need to do during regular work hours.