It's time to unplug yourself from unnecessary meetings - Poynter

"It's Wednesday morning. 11:30 a.m. local time. You just finished attending a standing daily or weekly status meeting. By the time you sit down, click on your next tab, get up for coffee, tea or water or contemplate what life choices led you to this moment, nearly everything you heard is being erased from your consciousness. What just happened? Did the meeting even exist? Did you leave with fewer action items and more anxiety about everything you missed while you were half-listening?"

"There are plenty of articles and studies about how the move to hybrid work cultures has led to more distraction, fatigue and even anxiety as relentless invite blocks fill our calendars. There are plenty of ways to restructure, iterate and manage meetings. But I'd rather ask: Should the meeting exist at all? This advice is especially for managers and team leads - the people who put meetings on calendars in the first place."

"Instead of requiring everyone to attend the same meeting, at the same time, in the same conference room or virtual meeting, can you get the same results by requiring people to post their updates in a document and communicate in your company's instant messaging platform? It won't just save you time. It can also: Provide ongoing documentation so everyone has shared access to the same information"

Recurring status meetings often leave attendees distracted, retain little information, and increase anxiety about missed items. Hybrid work and relentless calendar invites have amplified fatigue and distraction. Managers and team leads are the ones scheduling these meetings and should evaluate necessity. Many short updates can be handled asynchronously by posting progress in shared documents and using instant messaging for clarifications. Asynchronous updates create ongoing documentation and shared access to information while saving meeting time. Replacing needless meetings with written updates can improve productivity, reduce interruption costs, and allow focused work on higher-value tasks. Prioritize meetings that require real-time interaction and cancel the rest.

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