November 05, 2024 | Listen Online | Read Online

That meeting should have just been an email

Employees waste 31 hours every month in unproductive meetings

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Unproductive meetings are even more annoying than political campaign texts. Thankfully, those end today.

According to Google, employees spend an average of 31 hours per month in unproductive meetings. Basically wasting one work week each month.

There are 2 solutions:

Improve the meetings you have to attend
Stop being an employee

Let's get into it.

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Comment below and let me know if we're on the right track.

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Pull to Eject

A recent estimate suggests that employees endure a staggering 55 million meetings every day in the United States.

I bet you're not surprised to learn that less than 20% of managers receive any formal training on how to run a meeting.

Professor Steven Rogelberg has real solutions to poor meetings. And while I had an office on the UNCC campus for 3 years, sadly we never crossed paths. Rogelberg draws from extensive research and interviews with 5,000+ employees across a range of industries to share proven practices that help managers and employees enhance the quality of meetings.

Rogelberg provides immediate direction, guidance, and relief, offering a how-to guide to change your working life starting today.

The Surprising Science of Meetings - Steven G. Rogelberg, Ph.D.

Do you waste 31 hours every month in unproductive meetings?

Don't forget to calculate the "meeting anticipation" effect, where you're less productive before a scheduled meeting, and the time it takes to refocus afterwards. All in all, that "quick" 30-minute meeting might actually cost you nearly an hour of productive time.

I know that I wasted a lot of employee time with poorly run meetings in my web development firm. Stopping work flow - especially for designers and coders - was a huge drag on productivity and cost me personally as I was funding the company.

Any interruption typically takes 20 minutes to get back into the flow.

Shocking Study Shows Cost of Being Interrupted at Work

A study from a Berlin-based think tank shows the true cost of interruptions to employees in time, energy and resources.

The German study shows that employees get interrupted once every 4 minutes during a typical work day. Who gets anything done?

There are some well known tactics you can employ:

Set specific times you answer email
Schedule and block out extended periods of work time
Implement the Pomodoro method for bursts of execution
Take mini-breaks
Lean into making your meetings better

Or – when you've finally had enough – stop being an employee altogether and start that thing you've been dreaming about.

Now go launch something 🚀

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The only thing worse than starting something and failing… is not starting something.

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Old School Wisdom

In Deep Work, author and professor Cal Newport flips the narrative on impact in a connected age. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, he instead celebrates the power of its opposite.

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep Work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship.

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Free Knowledge

Need more research-backed ways to improve your meetings?

This older Forbes interview with Rogleberg has more recommendations.

Half Of All Meetings Are A Waste Of Time - Here's How To Improve Them

There are roughly 55 million meetings happening daily, and at least half of them do not accomplish much. Imagine the time, productivity, and ultimately money that is wasted? What can we do to improve this? University of North Carolina at Charlotte Management Professor Steven Rogelberg tells us.

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