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Meetings...don't hate them, but make them work

Hello friends and welcome to (I don’t believe it) 21st issue of Naiman Labs weekly newsletter!

How much time do you spend on meetings today? Recent studies show that working professionals spend around 21 hours per week in meetings. That's more than half of your workweek! By the end of 2022, this amount had increased by 7 hours since 2020. Remote work brought us a significant shift in the way we work.

I assume that the amount of meetings also increased because of our perception of what the meeting is. What used to be a quick chat in the workspace is now a scheduled "quick call".

And there’s even more. MIT research shown that today employees often face “meeting recovery syndrome” - they need some extra time to recover after a bad meeting and come back to work.

How can we make the most out of our meetings?

Before Meetings

🧠 First of all: fix your mindset. Meetings are not an obstacle to your "actual work", they are part of it. Most of your communication is actual work and has a big value. Do it right and maximize the value.

✍️ Preparation is key. Why do we often see meetings as useless? Because someone comes unprepared and everybody has to spend their time on something that should have been done in advance. Prepare the agenda and make sure that everybody understands their role at the meeting. Should they be active contributors? Should they just listen (then an e-mail would be enough), or should they moderate and facilitate the meeting? If you set the meeting, make the agenda clear and clarify your own goal for the meeting.

📆 Check the timing. People hate meetings because they interrupt their work. Be polite and check the calendars first (also check the time zones, you don't want to have someone at 6 am before their morning coffee at your meeting).

🤝 Make sure you invite the right people. Don’t overinvite (unless you want to make it a big kick-a** presentation for the huge audience). Invite only those who: have the right information, will have the action items after the meeting, should be involved in making a decision.

During Meetings

⏰ Be on time. No other comments here.

📸 Fix your gear. Check that your microphone and camera are on and your connection is stable.

🗒️ Take notes. There's nothing worse than coming out of a meeting without an outcome. Notes will keep the information and allow people to follow up. Agree with the participants who will be taking the notes. If it's your team meeting, it's always a cool practice to take notes on a rotational basis. Also, don't forget that you can use AI tools that can help you with note-taking. Try Otter.ai or Supernormal.com

Make the notes actionable. Make sure that at the end of the meeting, you have identified the next action items.

⌛ Avoid overtiming. If you agreed that the meeting would be 45 minutes long, don't make it 60 minutes long. Respect the time.

🧘‍♂️ Be present at the meeting. Multitasking is the enemy of your productivity. When you are at the meeting, don't try to code in the background or read an e-mail on the second screen. Try summarizing the key points mentioned at the meeting instead (it will help you ask the right questions and come to better conclusions).

After Meetings

📩 Make sure that you share the outcomes of the meeting with everyone. Be thankful, be clear, and share the notes and action items with everyone. ProTip: Don't forget to include those who were supposed to come but didn't because they will be kept in the loop this way.

Some Extra Actionable Tips 💡

  1. Make a meetings note template and use it.

  2. Use AI note-taking tools.

  3. Set a default meeting duration for 45-50 minutes instead of 1 hour.

  4. You don't need to accept meetings by default. If the agenda is not clear, ask for it. If your role is not clear, ask about it and keep the right to decline the invitation.

  5. Make some "meetings free" time. It can be an entire day or just some focus time periods during the day. Make them transparent and open - let everyone know that you're not joining any meetings at this time.

  6. If you want to give some updates at the meeting - share them as a note and plan first 5 minute of the meeting for everyone to read it. You’ll make them focus and you’ll make time to read for everyone.

📖 Deep dive:

Cool video from Jeff Su, productivity guru and Google professional.

That’s it for this week! Have a great week ahead and yes, happy meeting! 🤝😎

Vlad from Naiman Labs