8 simple rules to improve remote meetings

After one year in the pandemic and working from home I figured that most of us still face the same challenge: Working days are full of meetings. No time for focus. No way out of it.

4 min readMar 14, 2021

--

Actually there is a way out of it. Just follow a few simple rules to reduce the time you spend in meetings and increase the time you can use to focus on specific topics.

Source: https://gph.is/g/ajyGWy8

#1 Avoid meetings if possible

Ironically the most important rule to improve meetings is to simply avoid them.

If you’re the one setting up a meeting make sure that the goal of your meeting couldn’t have been achieved in a simple email or message.

If you’re invited to a meeting check if you can contribute to the outcome. Decline, if you can’t contribute and explain why you declined. I you could contribute but the time is not good for you check if someone else can represent your position in the meeting.

#2 No agenda, no attenda

If you’re the one setting up a meeting make sure that you define a clear goal and agenda for your meeting.

If you’re invited to a meeting that does not have a clear goal and agenda, decline and explain why you declined.

#3 Be prepared

Asynchronous communication is the key for working remote.

If you’re the one setting up a meeting make sure that you prepared as much as possible and send out your prepared documents (Miro boards, PowerPoint slides, Confluence docs,…) prior to the meeting. Ask your attendees to go through your documents to make sure you’re all on the same page and the meeting can be efficient.

If you’re invited to a meeting make sure to go through prepared documents prior to the meeting. If there are no prepared documents feel free to ask the meeting’s host for more information and show up prepared.

#4 Avoid distractions during the meeting

Now that your meeting finally takes place make sure that you are focused. If you’re busy doing other stuff and don’t pay attention in the meeting then ask yourself why you are here in first place.

Especially for remote meetings it’s compelling to be distracted by almost anything going on on your screen. Most of all “urgent” incoming messages.

Simply set your messenger — or ideally your whole operating system — to “do not disturb” mode. All of those incoming messages can wait until the meeting is over. Slack, Microsoft Teams and any other messenger offers options to pause notifications for a certain period of time. On macOS you can even do that for the whole operating system. I assume there’s something similar for Windows or Linux.

When you are on „do not disturb“ be transparent about it. Let others know that you will most likely not be responsive right now by setting your status in your messenger accordingly. For Slack that happens automatically.

#5 Stay or „Walk away“?

If you still can’t stay focused it’s probably time for you to leave the meeting. Let people know that you have to leave and inform the host later on why you left. This feedback is valuable for continuous improvement.

#6 Take notes

Ideally you’re still in the meeting and still focused. So let’s make sure that things discussed in the meeting don’t get lost. To ensure that use any collaboration tool (Confluence, Miro, Google Docs, Word 365,…) that’s available within your company to take notes during the meeting.

If you’re the one hosting the meeting make sure that the notes are available for everyone afterwards. This way you can also keep people in the loop who couldn’t attend.

#7 Reflect

To make sure you’re meeting doesn’t drift apart do not only reflect after but also during the meeting. Is your discussion still focused on the meeting’s purpose or are you stuck in a side discussion? If the latter is happening and you are the host move the side discussion to and idea parking lot for another meeting.

#8 Reflect again

If you managed to stay focused in the meeting check if you reached your goal(s) at the end. If you didn’t do so, either set up a follow-up meeting or even better: Define action items with clear responsibilities and due dates.

Conclusion: Prepare, focus, document, reflect.

I’m well aware that you can’t change that on your own all alone. So spread the word and get your team mates, partners and clients to commit to simple set of rules like the one above. I hope that this improves your workdays from now on.

--

--

With more than 15 years of experience in web development and my entrepreneurial mindset I’m leading international product teams at onlyfy by XING