When a meeting schedule is out of control, it becomes easy to spend more time working on other people's projects than your own. Back-to-back meetings and the feeling of being constantly in "perform" mode can leave professionals feeling frustrated, tired, and stressed. The good news is that sustainable changes can give your working week a much better rhythm — and free up energy to spend time on the work that truly matters.
The Problem with Meetings
Meetings in themselves are not the problem — the sheer volume of them can be. It is all a matter of finding balance. According to the Harvard Business Review, research has shown that meetings have increased in length and frequency over the past 50 years. In Europe, workers spend on average 23 days per year in meetings. With remote working now the norm for many, meetings have become the default way of getting things done.
Spending the majority of the working week in meetings results in:
- Being taken away from more important tasks
- Feeling exhausted from always being in performance mode
- Eye strain from looking at a fixed point for extended periods of time
How to Streamline Your Meeting Schedule
Taking a moment to look at a meeting schedule for the next two weeks and assessing whether more time is being spent in meetings than out of them is a useful starting point. The following five tips can help streamline meeting commitments.
1. Eliminate
Remove meetings that are unnecessary. An invitation may have been extended out of courtesy or because the organiser was unsure who to invite. If a meeting is not essential, politely declining the invitation is the right course of action. Re-framing the situation and focusing on the value that will be brought to the week by not attending makes this easier to do.
2. Reduce
With the meetings that remain in the calendar, consider which can be reduced in length and which can be reduced in frequency. Work will always expand to fill the time available. Reducing a one-hour meeting by 15 minutes, or changing a weekly meeting to fortnightly, will reclaim precious hours of the working week. Outlook for Microsoft 365 has a useful tool for reducing meeting length that is worth exploring.
3. Batch
Consolidating all meetings into one day or two half days reduces task switching — the cognitive cost of moving from meeting mode to deep thinking mode and back again — and as a result improves the ability to focus. An additional benefit is that some meeting invitations may disappear altogether if they fall on a day when attendance is not possible.
4. Purpose
For each meeting attended, be clear on the overall purpose. It may be necessary to check in with the meeting organiser to clarify this in advance. Purpose brings clarity and productivity. It is also useful to re-state the purpose at the start of the meeting so that all participants remain focused and get value from their time.
5. Move
Consider hosting meetings standing up, or if gathering face to face, taking a short walk together. Adopting a non-seated position provides a variety of benefits — it gives pace and helps people to think more freely. Walking meetings can be particularly useful for removing status distinctions between participants. Standing up and walking are also beneficial for physical health, making movement-based meetings a worthwhile habit to build.
How Professional Academy Supports Your Journey
Managing time and meetings effectively is a core leadership and management skill. Professional Academy offers accredited management and leadership qualifications through the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), designed to develop the skills needed to lead teams, manage workloads, and perform at the highest level.
Programmes available include the CMI Level 3 in Management and Leadership and the CMI Level 7 in Strategic Management and Leadership. Professional Academy also offers a range of CIM marketing qualifications and ISP sales qualifications for those looking to develop across other disciplines.
To find out more, explore the full range of professional qualifications or book an advice call at a time to suit you.
