Dear Zoom, Microsoft, Google, and Apple,
Your products are absolutely amazing! You all saved humanity during the pandemic! You also saved the economy as businesses refused to close due to your superior technology.
We win, we all get to work from home and have better work-life balance! Right?
NOPE, not anymore! We are grumbling loudly!
Have you heard of what too much of a good thing can do?
The workforce has eaten the candy of technology and now we are struggling with virtual meeting diabetes. We need your help and quick!
Workers are sprinting away from their day jobs as I am sure that part of their burnout is having to be on their camera 8 hours a day. We are simply meeting way too much and I believe one solution can be resetting the norms of how long a meeting should be.
Who says that a meeting has to be a minimum of 30 minutes?
Why not update the calendar to default dropdowns to 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25-minute meeting opportunities? Why not create digital color-coded calendar features called huddles, hallway decisions, and watercooler talks? These types of conversations happen routinely in a brick-and-mortar space and are certainly not limited to 30-minute blocks.
Yes, for the last year we’ve been hacking your systems to shorten meetings from 60 minutes to 55 minutes…or 30 minutes to 25 minutes because some of us do want to pee in a toilet instead of in our pants. We will continue to do so (hacking calendars that are) as you all catch up.
Meanwhile, I know that we as a workforce also have a responsibility to be more efficient with our meeting calendars. So while we wait on new software updates, here are a few tips to meet less:
Update Your Default
Building new habits can sometimes be difficult. However, there is a hidden feature in Microsoft Outlook that can be found in the settings of the calendar to customize your meeting defaults to 5 or 10 minutes less than the typical 30-minute blocks. To update your default, Open Outlook > Click on File > Click on Office Options > Click on Calendar > Update Your Preferred Meeting Durations > Click OK.
Time Block Immediately
Time blocking is a gift to create time for deep work without neglecting our families after hours. Use your calendar to block times in your day where you are more energized (based on your chronotype and circadian rhythm) and availability to get your most pressing work done.
Freedom Fridays are the New Casual Fridays
Along the same lines as time blocking, go extreme and choose an entire day where no meetings are allowed. I would highly recommend Friday for most organizations as most knowledge workers are more relaxed and creative at the end of the week.
Ask First, Don’t Tell
Don’t schedule a meeting without getting someone’s consensus. Meeting overload is a real thing and it creates personal turmoil for millions. However, this is a two-way street…if you are on the receiving end of meeting bullying, then re-read point number one of time blocking! Stand strong!
Establish a New Law
Allow meeting attendees to take a break. Make it a practice to schedule meetings to end 5 minutes (or more) before the hour or half-hour. This is the basic foundation of Parkinson’s Law which is a principle that magnifies our inefficiencies when we have more time than what is needed.
Start on Time and End Early
Set organization values to start meetings on time and be ok if the agenda allows the meeting to end early. Don’t fill in the space for small talk until the clock strikes zero…unless you genuinely need this time of connection as humans. If all meetings allow for breaks in back-to-backs, then fewer people will arrive late. See how that works?
Cancel It
Ask yourself if this is necessary or meaningless before scheduling or accepting a meeting request. Use other technologies for asynchronous work like Slack, Trello, SharePoint, or Teams. Compile and curate questions, notes, and updates that you have for a single person instead of blowing up someone else’s chat with your urgency that may not be timely…or even important.
Most importantly, speak up!
If you feel like you’re in a vicious cycle of endless meetings, then you’re probably not alone. Diplomatically, ask the question to other participants to weigh in on their thoughts and problem-solve together using some of the recommendations above.
Sincerely,
The Meeting Less Taskforce