Stay Calm on Overscheduled Days

🎒 Microlesson

🪞 Reflect

How do you feel when you have days crammed with back-to-back virtual meetings? How productive are you?

💡 Concept

Virtual meeting overload can decrease your energy and productivity and turn your calendar into a chaotic mess. You may even be tempted to skip some important meetings altogether.

The best fix is to use asynchronous processes to help reduce the number of meetings, but that’s not always an option. The good news is, there are still steps you can take to help minimize the hectic feeling of being dragged from one meeting to another.

Be Prepared

Start your day by reviewing your calendar. For all meetings that are scheduled, confirm you have the information needed to prepare for and attend them:

1. start and end time

2. meeting location

3. agenda

4. prework materials

Sometimes, meeting invitations and other information can end up in SPAM or other folders. To prevent missing any important invites, periodically check those folders.

Manage Your Energy

Schedule meetings with 25- or 50-minute durations. These shorter increments provide you with valuable breaks between meetings, allowing you to recharge and regroup. Make sure to schedule a couple of longer breaks between meetings as well—and get away from that screen! It can also help to vary your position (standing to sitting) and location.

Maintain Access and Accountability

Determine who will be responsible for taking meeting notes and documenting action items during the meeting. Knowing where to find these records afterward makes sure nothing falls through the cracks and helps maintain accountability.

🎬 Take Action

• Don't rely on your memory alone! Check that every meeting and event is promptly added to your calendar. Check SPAM folders for missing event invites.

• Double-check that all event invitations include clear instructions on whether it's a virtual or in-person meeting and how to join.

• Ensure that you have all the information you need to prepare for and participate in meetings effectively.

• If a meeting lacks an agenda, take the initiative to request or create one, depending on your role.

✅ Check In

🧠 Keep Learning

Learn how to reduce the number of virtual meetings you have with our Async at Work eCourse.

📰 News

We’ve lowered our prices for many of our self-paced eCourses!

Async at Work: $45 (was $145)

Leadplaceless: $195 (was $495)

Leadplaceless + Hybrid Team Success Toolkit Bundle: $245

See our most up-to-date pricing in our Course Catalog.

🎁 Learn with your team!

Refer our weekly microlessons to your team members to learn as a group! Just follow the instructions in the section below to get started.