With the rise of remote work, collaborations have become the norm rather than the exception. Whether you are working with colleagues across an organization or outside individuals for sharing resources or knowledge, meetings play a significant part in keeping relationships strong.
Meeting face-to-face is obviously the best way to do this but due to limited availability, most people now have to rely more heavily on meeting via technology. This can be difficult at times as there are different apps that offer varying levels of quality when it comes to collaboration features and usability.
One app that has really picked up momentum is Zoom which was initially designed to allow users to connect remotely for video calls but now offers additional feature sets such as audio/video conference rooms, shared documents, whiteboards and even screen recording.
The downfall of many of these new feature sets is that they are not free so depending on how much use each room gets can add up very quickly! It is easy to create multiple accounts and use one for personal chats while another is used exclusively for business conversations making it cost effective in the long run but limiting initial usage.
Another downside is that some of these extra features require you to invite others to your account which may not make sense if you are just looking to chat casually with friends or coworkers.
Meeting invitations that are not one-off events but instead continue to happen regularly can sometimes get lost in the mix.
That is why it is important to be aware of how many times you have invited someone to an event or meeting, so that you do not invite them too frequently and overcrowd your calendar.
It also helps you keep track of whether they attended last time around and if this time they declined or said they were unable to attend then you should consider dropping the invitation!
Zoom allows you to create reminders for these types of meetings which can help with this by reminding you when the next occurrence will take place. This way you do not forget about it accidentally or add extra stress onto yourself as you try to work out what was going on during the last meeting.
There may even be legal obligations related to such meetings depending on what kind of organization you are hosting them at.
With all of these meeting types, there can be too much of a good thing. Just like with any other habit you want to break, you have to know how to recognize when you’ve gone beyond your limit.
If you feel overwhelmed by the amount of meetings occurring throughout the day, take some time to review the settings for each type of meeting. If you notice that one particular meeting style has become frequent, consider whether it is really necessary or if you could simply hold a conversation via chat instead.
You may also need to reconsider what kind of meetings are allowed in the first place. Some team members might not agree to an audio-only conference call unless they have speakerphone capabilities, which can be difficult to find at times.
Having too many meeting opportunities can sometimes feel like a whirlwind. With all of these meeting invitations, it may be hard to decide which ones are necessary and which ones you could get by without.
Running out of time due to such a large amount of meetings can become very frustrating. You will need to determine how much time each person needs for their work and give them that instead of forcing them to look forward to another meeting.
By having too many meetings, people will not have enough time to focus on what they are being invited to do and whether or not they are able to attend. This can hurt your team’s productivity and efficiency.
Too many meetings also create an uncomfortable atmosphere for those attending. Some people may feel overwhelmed and distracted because there is so much going on. They may even feel pressured to attend when they would rather stay at home.
It is important to keep meetings to a reasonable limit to ensure that everyone has enough time to spend working effectively on projects. Try limiting yourself to only five or 10 total meetings per week if you find this number helps you regulate contact with colleagues.
With all of these tools, there will always be some sort of meeting function available to you. Most are free unless you are paying for their service already!
If you’re trying to reduce your use of video conferencing apps like Skype or Google Hangouts, then giving up the feature completely can make it easier.
You can still collaborate, chat, and communicate via other features within each app, but not through a video call. This way you can focus more on business conversations rather than being limited by time slots or requiring someone else to be using the app at that moment.
And if you do need a video conference sometimes, there are ways to limit how many people can participate, which helps control costs as well.
The first thing you should do is make sure your attendees know what meeting they are attending before inviting them. If there is not enough time to provide this information, then at least include a link to the meeting or describe the event as clearly as possible.
This will help people feel prepared for the meeting and give them some idea of what to expect. It also helps prevent anyone from being left out! They can either come into the meeting via the link or use the app themselves if they have it.
By providing these details, you save yourself time down the line by avoiding having to re-invent the wheel. You also reduce stress for everyone involved, especially when technology may be struggling.
It is best to let people choose whether to attend or not, but if someone does decide to skip the meeting, it is better to find this out now rather than later.
- Never ever send an invitation with the word ‘meeting’ as the only detail. This could put off people who want to schedule a private chat or talk beyond the allotted time.
Information such as the room name, topic, and date can all be included. Make sure to check that everything is working properly beforehand though, as some settings take longer to update than others.
As mentioned before, one of the main reasons people have trouble focusing during meetings is because they do not know when the meeting will end. If you are hosting a conference call or video chat via software like Google Hangouts, YouTube, or Skype, then making it clear what time it is can help facilitate focus.
Most such applications have an internal clock that determines how long the meeting should last. This clock usually updates automatically, but you may need to manually update it if the meeting has gone longer than expected.
By having a specific time frame, people will be able to more easily determine whether the meeting has reached its natural conclusion, which could promote focus. They also will know how much time is left, helping with engagement.
With all of these meetings, one thing that can get annoying quickly is listening to people tell you why their team member should be included in the meeting. It can feel like an endless stream of “me”s and “I’m important so let me into this meeting!”
This happens even more in online meetings where it is harder to evaluate someone’s confidence or lack thereof in themselves.
So how do you have those awkward conversations while keeping control of the room?
Tell everyone what the meeting is about. Make sure your colleagues know who each other are and what role they play in the group. This way, anyone talking about another person doesn’t seem out of place or overly formal. It also helps to reduce confusion because there isn’t much mystery as to what everyone else is doing.
With all of these meetings, one thing that can get annoying for participants is having to tell people what time they are every few minutes or being left out because someone else set their meeting as recurring.
It would be great if there was an easy way to change this but unfortunately, there is not at this moment. The best solution we have found so far is creating your own calendar event.
Instead of making a normal meeting with someone, you make it a “Meeting reminder” which automatically updates anyone who has the app open at the given time.
