Why is it so Hard to Pay Attention During Meetings?

One of the most detested tasks of day to day business is mind-numbingly boring meetings. Meetings can feel pointless, inefficient, to the point where you simply cannot concentrate. While meetings are intended to be a place of decision making and execution, they have the potential to result in the dreaded inverse... delayed decision making.

So, why do we have so many meetings and why is it so hard to pay attention?

Your Meetings Aren’t Very Efficient

Simply Google “meetings”, and you’ll be presented with thousands of actionable results to making meetings more time-efficient, organized, well-managed, and the list goes on...

In a poll by YouGov, 82% of businesses surveyed claim that the majority of internal company meetings are completely unnecessary. Many meetings can simply be condensed into a daily summary email, however, many companies fail to consider this alternative and continue to schedule more meetings. Often times, these meetings do not even pertain to everyone in the room. Meetings should be kept to only those directly involved, with the outcome and results relayed over a follow-up email (or a team messaging application such as Slack).

Meetings Are Too Lengthy

Virtually no one wishes that their scheduled meetings will last longer. Meetings that last 45 minutes will lose the attention of 36% of those in the room. Many topics that could be succinctly explained in minutes often take thirty minutes and risk derailing the actual point of the meeting itself. This is an extremely common pitfall that causes inefficiency and shortened attention span from participants.

Furthermore, many employees are late to meetings, fail to show up, or leave early. This drags on the length of the meeting and ultimately hinders efficiency and productivity at work. While meetings need not be long and complex, they do need to be mandatory. Some companies implement a policy where chronic latecomers pay $1 for each minute they’re late, with accumulated late fees funding a company party down the road.

You’re Not Setting an Agenda

In allocating time for meetings, people fail to consider Parkinson’s Law in project management. This law states that people will complete tasks given a time constraint. For example, if you allot an hour, work will be completed in an hour.

A simple solution is utilizing a project management tool such as Asana. Management tools like these allow people to assign conversation points to specific people and set time limits for meeting points.

Distraction

With the implementation of modern technology comes greater distraction. Even outside of the workplace, technology hinders the ability of people to keep calm and stay focused on one task and instead encourages multitasking activities and distraction altogether.

Even before the most recent advances in technology, meetings were often filled with side conversations, lateness, and an overall lack of participation. When the attention of the team is dispersed or someone walks in late, the conversation backtracks and loses traction.

With the advancement of technology comes even greater room for error. People believe they can scroll through their Facebook or LinkedIn feed while simultaneously being an active meeting participant; however, research has proven that we are incapable of multitasking. While we may believe we aren't hindering other meeting attendees, our devices distract those around us as well.

You Have too Many Competing Priorities

Let’s face it, we’re all busy.

When every priority is competing to be at the top, meetings feel like a roadblock that many people attempt to maneuver around. With several meetings a day and mountains of work, it seems impossible to balance the chaos.

Whether it’s choosing to work during meetings or becoming distracted thinking about all of your responsibilities (or the alarming number of emails in your inbox since the meeting began), meetings begin to feel like a chore.

Following Up

Meetings are notorious for having little actionable results. A report by Fuze stated that executives believe over 60% of meetings are a waste of time. With limited action items and tasks following many meetings, it seems impossible to affect meaningful change or results from a given meeting.

So what now?

Other companies have seen the corporate inefficiencies that are so prevalent in meetings. However, many companies are developing methods to overcome these inefficiencies. Increasingly, companies allow team members to rate one another’s meeting performance. People who ordinarily don’t pay attention are forced to actively participate and add value, in order to maintain positive ratings among peers, leading to a more engaged team overall.

In a similar way, Fireflies’ automatic note-taking app encourages participation. Automated meeting summaries detail what was discussed and by whom. With an AI assistant serving as a note-taking hack, it becomes obvious when people are not contributing to the meeting, reinforcing the team benefits of active meeting participation.

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