How to reduce your time in meetings: Six best practices
Making meetings more efficient with best practices and technology
This article outlines six key strategies to reduce time spent in meetings and make them more productive, along with how technology like Circleback can support these efforts. By implementing these practical approaches, teams can transform their meeting culture from time-consuming to efficient, while ensuring discussions remain effective and action-oriented.
1. Reduce the overall number of meetings
The most straightforward approach to spending less time in meetings is simply to have fewer of them. Consider these statistics:
Americans organize approximately 11 million meetings every day
63% of these meetings don't have an agenda
45% are merely informational staff meetings
Over one-third of employees report feeling that their meeting time was unproductive
Best practice: Before scheduling a meeting, especially with just one other person, ask yourself: "Could this be handled by email or a phone call instead?" If the answer is yes, you've just reclaimed valuable time on your calendar. For example, if you need to provide a status update that doesn't require discussion or immediate feedback, a well-written email might be more efficient than gathering everyone for a meeting.
2. Narrow your focus
Every meeting should have a clear goal and a focused agenda with no more than five items. Meetings that attempt to accomplish too much typically result in scattered discussions and few concrete decisions.
Best practice: Create a "parking lot" for any topics that arise but aren't directly related to the meeting's goal or agenda items. For instance, if you're in a project planning meeting and someone brings up concerns about next year's budget, acknowledge the importance of the topic but place it in the parking lot for discussion at a more appropriate time. This keeps the conversation focused while ensuring important topics aren't forgotten.
3. Only schedule the amount of time you actually need
Many scheduling systems default to 30 or 60-minute meeting blocks, but what if you only need 20 minutes? When groups are scheduled for more time than necessary, they tend to use it all, often filling extra minutes with off-topic discussions or casual conversation.
Best practice: Next to each agenda item, assign a specific amount of time you'd like to spend on it, and designate a "Time Keeper" for the meeting. This person will monitor time spent on each agenda item and provide a 5-minute warning to wrap up discussion and move on. For example, if you've allocated 15 minutes to discuss a new initiative, the Time Keeper will alert the group when 10 minutes have passed so conclusions can be reached within the allotted timeframe.
4. Be on time and begin on time
Organizations that become relaxed about meeting punctuality risk creating a culture where tardiness is acceptable. This often results in wasting the first several minutes waiting for latecomers, showing disrespect for those who arrived punctually.
Best practice: Set a 5-minute reminder on your phone or calendar so you can wrap up your current task and arrive on time. As the meeting organizer, start the meeting precisely at the scheduled time, even if some participants haven't arrived. For example, if your 2:00 PM meeting has only 80% attendance at start time, begin anyway. Those who arrive late will quickly learn that the meeting culture values punctuality, and over time, tardiness will decrease.
5. Ensure everyone has a voice
Whether your meeting has two participants or twenty, it's common for discussions to be dominated by a small number of vocal individuals. As a meeting leader, it's your responsibility to make sure everyone can contribute.
Best practice: For larger groups, consider breaking into smaller teams for discussion, with each team assigning a spokesperson. When the full group reconvenes, each spokesperson shares their team's thoughts, ensuring all perspectives are heard. Alternatively, in smaller meetings, directly invite input from quieter participants: "Sarah, we haven't heard your thoughts on this proposal yet. What's your perspective?"
6. Mitigate tension
Meetings cannot be effective if participants spend time arguing or if discussions become uncomfortable. If left unchecked, contentious meetings can lead to employees avoiding future gatherings altogether.
Best practice: When tensions rise, acknowledge participants' feelings, even if their perspective doesn't align with the majority. For example, if someone becomes visibly frustrated during a discussion about changing processes, you might say, "Jim, I can see you have strong feelings about this change. I appreciate your concern for maintaining quality. Can you help us understand your specific concerns?" By validating their emotions, you give them space to step back from a defensive position and engage more constructively.
Implementing technology solutions for more efficient meetings
Beyond these six best practices, tools like Circleback can further enhance meeting efficiency. Circleback's high-quality meeting transcription captures every important detail, so team members can focus on the conversation rather than taking notes.
The system integrates with your existing calendar and communication tools, making it easy to share meeting insights with everyone who needs them. Perhaps most valuable is Circleback's automatic action item surfacing, which clearly identifies next steps and responsibilities, ensuring that decisions made in meetings actually translate to progress afterward.
With these features, Circleback helps teams document discussions and decisions accurately, allowing participants to be fully present during meetings while still maintaining a complete record of what was discussed and what actions need to be taken.
