You’re knee-deep in a client proposal, your inbox is filling up by the second — and you’re locked in a conference room, where Tom from accounting is only halfway through a meandering 30-minute monologue.
It’s not cruel and unusual punishment: It’s a meeting. And in the annals of office life, few things can be as time-sucking — or soul-crushing.
According to a CareerBuilder survey, poorly run powwows can be downright ruinous for productivity, with 23 percent of respondents counting meetings as their primary workday distraction.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Here, productivity pros and city business leaders offer their top tips for keeping business sit-downs lean and mean.
All hail the memo
The first step in the battle against the unwanted meeting is deciphering which ones are even necessary. The most common offenders? Those whose sole purpose is to communicate information.
“So many meetings occur because they are convenient to the person calling the meeting,” says Al Pittampalli, author of “Read This Before Our Next Meeting.” He explains, “Writing a memo takes time, and it’s easier and faster to tell everyone live.”
So instead of summoning everyone to the conference room to share a project update, put the information in a cohesive and coherent e-mail instead. It might take you longer, but it will preserve the uninterrupted stretches of time your colleagues need to get their best work done.
“Let’s realize what the live [meeting] time is really good for — which is to debate, argue and make decisions,” Pittampalli says. “And let’s use a digital form of conversation for everything else.”
Get exclusive
If you’ve ever sat through a sit-down in which exactly one talking point was relevant to your work, you know the unique torture of the come-one-come-all meeting invite. Experts say it’s time to ditch the all-inclusive approach and get decisive about who really needs to be there.
“Only invite those whose attendance is crucial to moving the agenda items forward,” counsels Tamara Myles, author of “The Secret to Peak Productivity.” “Productivity tends to decrease as the number of attendees increases.”
According to a 2009 study published in Small Group Research, the magic number might be three to six people. A survey of 329 work groups found that overall productivity was highest among groups of that size.
In the Midtown offices of tech startup LocalMaven, CEO Arnon Rosan is a fanatic about keeping meetings small — even though his company is only five employees strong.
“I’m pretty particular — I’ll call a meeting with three out of the five,” he explains. “It might sound harsh, but I’ll say, ‘I hope this doesn’t offend you, but you really don’t need to be in this meeting.’ ”
Employees don’t mind the exclusion.
“Frankly, everybody’s so busy in a start-up environment, they’re happy to not be distracted,” he says.
Time is money
Once you’ve gathered the troops at the round table, the best way to keep the sit-down brief is to keep your eye on the clock — literally.
To do so, Pittampalli recommends scheduling meetings for odd times, “like 17 or 23 minutes,” or using a stopwatch in the conference room.
“It sends the signal that we really want to make every minute count,” he says.
At Brandstyle Communications, an Upper East Side p.r. firm, partners hold employees to a five-minute talking limit during their weekly staff meetings, using an iPhone stopwatch to keep track.
Co-founder Zoe Weisberg Coady says they instituted the policy after off-topic tangents derailed too many confabs.
“It has shaved a good 20 minutes off our meetings and keeps everyone’s attention,” says Weisberg Coady of the timer technique. “No one is starting to check their e-mail or Instagram. Instead, everyone is trying to beat the clock.”
Take a stand
And if you can’t get the resident chatty Cathy to rein in her spiel? Hold a stand-up meeting, like employees do every day in the Flatiron offices of Betterment, an automated investment firm.
“No one wants to stand up too long, so it forces you to be concise,” explains CEO Jon Stein of his company’s team huddles.
Nat Wasserstein, a Nyack-based crisis management consultant, likes to start meetings by asking his clients to rise from their chairs.
“At first they think I’m joking,” says Wasserstein. “I’ve found stand-up meetings are more efficient. The physical act of standing helps me frame the meeting’s agenda as an instant call to action.”