When you work a typical office job, even remotely, you probably spend more time in meetings than you’d like. Last year, a survey by AI customer engagement company Dialpad found that 83 percent of 2,800 respondents said they spent four to 12 hours a week in meetings. If you are a founder or executive, that time can be over 20 hours.
No one can blame you for being exhausted. Whether virtual or in-person, meetings require focus and can be exhausting, especially for introverts who don’t get energized from interactions with colleagues.
Unless your company takes the bold stance of eliminating meeting types, as Shopify said it was doing earlier this year, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to escape it completely. But you can at least try to make them shorter, especially if you are the organizer. Employee meetings usually take way too long and are hampered by Zoom issues, idle chatter and the lack of a clear agenda.
No strategy is perfect, but here are some ideas to shorten the time you’re stuck in hell.
How to make virtual meetings shorter
If you’re the meeting planner, consider doing away with one-hour or 45-minute meetings unless they’re mission-critical or many teams are involved in presenting updates. Ask yourself: Can we get everything done in 30 minutes? How about 15? Do not commit too much to the time you have reserved in the calendar.
Before you send out the invite, ask yourself, “Do all these people need to be at this meeting?” Those who are not present can always be supplemented with a short update, if necessary. Meetings with too many participants are also likely to take longer.
The person who organized the meeting should lead the discussion and make sure it stays on track and on time. If that’s you and it’s not your forte, appoint someone else to run the meeting. Don’t have a meeting with no one in charge; that’s a great way to wander and go too long.
The pandemic shutdown made Zoom a tool that almost everyone had to start using, from CEOs to K-12 students. But strangely, people didn’t seem to get much better at navigating Zoom’s many controls and getting sound to work. It’s 2023 and meetings are still marred by, “Can you hear me?” Am I on mute?”
Let attendees know in advance that the virtual meeting room will open 10 minutes early for a “leave your mic and camera to work” grace period. If possible, have someone in the conference room to resolve those issues.
Be consistent with which virtual platform you use for meetings. Switching from Zoom to Microsoft Teams to Google Meet introduces more variables that can lead to delays.
Have an agenda for all types of meetings. Nothing makes a meeting last longer than a lack of action items and an aimless conversation.
And speaking of conversation, set a limit of five minutes (or less) for small talk. If a team hasn’t met in a while, some pleasantries are fine, but don’t let it derail the agenda. For regular meetings, table social chat until after the meeting.
