Confession: I HATE MEETINGS

Meetings are a great place to connect with your team, share data, and get an understanding of where you stand in a project. BUT meetings also waste a lot of time. When you are in a meeting that means you have paused your work to talk about your work instead of getting closer to completing your work.

“New research shows that 70% of meetings keep employees from doing productive work. While there was a 20% decrease in the average length of meetings during the pandemic, the number of meetings attended by a worker on average rose by 13.5%” stated in Harvard Business Review .

Here are three ways to cut down your meetings:

1. Record a video explainer. Tools like Loom, Vidyard, and Screencastify allow you to record quick videos right in your browser or desktop that are easily sharable to your team. I use these tools to record myself completing, explaining, or reviewing tasks then send it to my team and they can execute.

2. Use a project management tool. Having a project management tool will help you cut down on meetings in the first place, but then properly implementing that tool will change your life! If it’s clear who needs to be doing what, when, and where it helps you to prevent all the micro meetings and updates in between. Personally, I love and use ClickUp for Project Management

3. Ask clarifying questions. Don’t assume whomever you are working with has the same point of view as you do. Two people can look at the same exact thing and see it differently. Explaining what you want as clearly as possible including writing it all down is ideal. Then ask questions to the other team members to ensure they understand what you just explained.

These three methods have saved me hundreds of hours of having meetings and I hope it saves you that time as well!

Do you also hate meetings? What are some strategies you use to cut back on meetings?