MEETING OR EMAIL?
Facebook recently launched the free beta version for a new virtual reality (VR) meeting experience called HORIZON WORKROOMS. But this VR version has a high level of meeting fatigue even more than zoom meeting.
But the bigger picture is here how we will meet in the future though. No more face –to face meetings, thanks to pandemics making everything overwhelming to the managers. Every important decision is help on videos or email.
Let’s decide meeting or email?
The very first question you need to ask is for yourself, do you really need a meeting? If it is yes, do we have an agenda? If yes, go for it or just type the email and send them to everyone.
Video calls are draining your mental health. But too many mails are also as bad as too many meeting or video calls.
Here are few tips for you to eliminating time-wasting meetings or at least minimizing their impact on your team’s productivity.
Do a meeting math
We know a one-hour meeting is never a one-hour meeting; it’s 5 hours meeting with only 10 people.
So that is why you need to properly set everything beforehand and eliminates the time wasted.
Even the virtual meeting is not free nowadays, you knew how fast bills add ups, so set everything beforehand.
Declare “No Meeting Day”
Distinct your workday into two blocks: work time and meeting time. This will help in being more productive and bouncing back and forth will reduce time. Always fix your time and no interruption strictly.
Limit the size to 5 or less
Research shows that small teamwork better than large teams. Less people mean each person feels accountable for contributing to the project.
The same thing applies to the hand-on-hand meetings, more the people involved, it is easier to tune out. Very few meetings or calls required more than 5 people. So stick to this rule for hassle-free meetings.
Decline invites
The meeting is important and productive that doesn’t mean it’s productive for everyone, except those only who have crucial points to say. Or employees no need to sit for an hour-long meeting, when only a few minutes are relevant to you.
“It is not rude to leave. It is rude to make someone stay and waste their time.” Says Elon Musk
Beware of meeting creep
Just because a meeting is productive, doesn’t mean it will be productive continually. Many frequent meetings happen out of habit even after they’ve outlasted their usefulness
Take all of your periodic meetings off the schedule for a week. Only add back in the ones that really were providing value you couldn’t get from sending an email or starting a thread. Do this on a quarterly basis to prevent meeting creep.
All of the guidance around fruitful meetings can be bring down to this: Before putting a meeting on the schedule, ask yourself “Is this worth interrupting my teammates’ time and attention for?” Sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes it’s no. Act accordingly.
