7 Practical Ways to Make Your Meetings More Efficient

Do you want some practical tips to help you make meetings more efficient in your business or office?

Are you looking for some targeted ways to save time and energy in your meetings on a regular basis?

In this article, you’ll find seven practical ways you can make your meetings more efficient right now.   

Key Takeaways

Table of Contents

What are the three 3 p’s of effective meetings?

If you want to make your meetings more efficient than they are right now, then you need to wholeheartedly embrace the three p’s. The three p’s of effective meetings are purpose, planning, and people.

Firstly, your meeting needs a purpose. You’re not simply meeting for meeting’s sake, right? You want to accomplish a specific purpose, whether that’s brainstorming ideas for a marketing campaign, discussing a finished client project, or meeting with customers for feedback.

Secondly, your meeting needs to have a plan in place in advance of the meeting. This allows you to properly prepare for and hold the meeting with intention and care. It also allows you to follow up with next steps once the meeting has concluded.

Thirdly, you need to invite the right people to your meeting. Ideally, attendees should both add value and gain something from the meeting. When you have the right people, you can review information, generate ideas, hold fruitful discussions, and accomplish items on your meeting agenda.

What is the dominant factor that make meetings less effective?

Let’s face it, meetings tend to get a bad rap for being long, boring, dull, and unnecessary. But that’s often the result of a poorly-run meeting or unnecessary meeting. The vast majority of meetings do not need to be held in the first place.

As a productivity coach, I think the the number one thing that makes meetings less effective than they can be is a lack of seriousness or importance on behalf of organizers and attendees.

And when I’m talking about importance, I’m not talking about an inflated, egotistical, self-entitlement type of importance. Rather, I’m talking about the importance of gathering a group of people at a specific time and place for a reason.

You’re gathering people together to tap into their knowledge, wisdom, experience, and understanding. Respecting this fact can go a long way in organizing a well-run meeting that honors other’s time and commitments.

Are there any benefits when you make meetings more efficient?

Yes! I think there are several potential benefits for both you and your business when you take time to make meetings more efficient. Meetings make a big part of our daily lives, so it’s only fitting to learn how to make them as efficient as possible.

When you make your meetings more efficient you may find such benefits as:

• Effectively solving problems, issues, and challenges related to agenda items
• Improved morale and participation among employees, staff, and workers
• More creative, thoughtful, and engaged discussions among meeting attendees
• Feeling less stressed or overwhelmed in preparation for and reviewing a concluded meeting
• Save valuable minutes and hours of wasted time throughout the month during the meeting itself

What are three things that can make meetings more efficient?

When it comes to making a meeting more efficient, what do you think of?

A meeting leader? An agenda? Maybe even a timekeeper?

While these are all important, you should also look at some things that are commonly overlooked.

In my book, here are three unconventional things that make a meeting effective:

• Your mindset
• The mindset of attendees
• The atmosphere of the meeting

Your mindset going into the meeting can make or break the meeting, especially if you’re the meeting leader. That’s why it’s crucial for you to have a positive mindset in order to run the meeting efficiently.

When it comes to the mindset of attendees, you want to clearly communicate why people are attending the meeting. You should also address their role in the meeting as well as your expectations.

In some cases, it may need to be stated that the meeting is not punishment, but a crucial part of ongoing work.

And lastly, you need to consider the atmosphere of the meeting itself. When the meeting leader and attendees have a focused and positive mindset, that’s when a meeting can truly shine.

The agenda items can be addressed and completed in a thoughtful and timely manner.

What’s the key to a successful meeting?

I think the key to a successful meeting is to take a big step back. You need to understand how the meeting fits into the bigger picture of your business.

Think about it: how many times do you hold a meeting on a Wednesday with your employees just to say you held a meeting?

Most likely, you don’t. Rather, you hold a meeting because you need to discuss a new project with a client, review sales information with employees, or discuss weekly assignments with your assistant.

Your meeting is a brief moment in time. But it can totally change the trajectory of your business, if you allow it the space it needs to grow and thrive.

You need to view the meeting as part of the bigger picture of your business. You need to clearly understand that a meeting is only part of your work.

Many people mistakenly believe the meeting is what’s most important. But that’s a poor way of looking at things.

Preparation before and after the meeting are what can really drive your business forward.

How to make meetings more efficient?

So, I bet you’re wondering, how exactly do you make meetings more efficient? Do you wave a magic meeting wand and hope for the best? Thankfully, the answer is simpler than you think.

One thing you can do is conduct a meeting audit. This is a simple process that anyone can do.

Review a recent meeting or two that involved two or more people. Use your calendar, meeting agenda if you have it, and meeting notes for reference. You should also have a notepad or notebook handy.

Now, review the entire flow of your meeting time and answer the following questions:

• When was the meeting supposed to begin? When did it actually begin?
• Who was invited to the meeting? Who actually attended the meeting?
• Which items were on the agenda? Which items were actually discussed?
• What materials were supposed to be circulated? What materials were actually circulated?
• When was the meeting supposed to end? When it actually end?

It can be difficult to ask yourself pointed questions as the above. But when you provide honest answers, you give yourself invaluable information that can help you run more efficient meetings.

7 practical ways to make your meetings more efficient

Meetings should be places where ideas are discussed, plans are made, and items are voted upon.

If you’re not seeing any of the above, chances are your meetings are in need of a serious efficiency overhaul.

Here are seven practical ways you can make your multi-person meetings more efficient, right now.

Create a meeting agenda

A meeting agenda is an absolute must for any meeting. It serves as a guide to effectively run the meeting,

You need a meeting agenda every time you hold a meeting. It doesn’t matter if you’re meeting with one other person or with fifteen other people. Having one on hand will help you stay focused and organized during your time together.

If you haven’t created a meeting agenda before, that’s okay, you can start now. And if you’re already in the habit of creating meeting agendas, you can always improve your agendas.

The first step is to clearly identify your meeting goals. What do you wish to accomplish during the meeting? What are you small and large goals?

Whom do you need to speak with, discuss, update, or inform? How do you want the meeting to drive the future of your business once the meeting is concluded?

When you create your agenda, be sure to include specific agenda items. You should also include time references for each item, or how many minutes you’ll spend for each item.

Having time references for agenda items will help you to better manage the flow of the meeting. It will ultimately help you end the meeting in a timely fashion.

Follow the meeting agenda

You’ve just created an agenda, great. But you’re not creating the meeting agenda just for the fun of it. You’re creating it so you can run your meeting with purpose.

Purposefully ignoring an agenda is almost as bad as not having an agenda in the first place.

It’s literally like throwing away your hard work and effort into the trash while simultaneously jeopardizing the future of your business.

If you don’t follow your agenda, then there will be unsatisfactory consequences. For example, your meeting can potentially go way off topic, waste minutes of time, and leave you in a place no better than where you started.

So, follow your agenda to the letter. Print out physical copies for yourself and others, or circulate electronic versions, so everyone can stay on stay on track.

Invite the right people

Inviting everyone and anyone to a meeting does not make a meeting more productive. In reality, it only gums up the works.

Make sure you are inviting only those people who actually need to be at the meeting. This is not about filling up those seats!

This is about inviting the right people so you can get the result or results you seek in your business.

When it comes to selecting people for your meeting, think about whether they have something to add to the meeting. Think in terms of providing information, offering feedback, contributing to decision-making, and the like.

Of course, if your meeting is a presentation, that’s a different story. Your presentation should be one that is concise and accurate and that can only be presented in this format, and not in an email or other announcement.

In this case, you must ensure attendees are those who absolutely need to know what is being presented. You can then cut weed out other potential attendees from your invitation list.

Get serious about punctuality

One of the number one killers of meetings is poor time management skills. Meetings exist within finite segments of time.

That’s why it’s so important that everyone attending the meeting is focused, present, and attentive.

Make it 100% crystal clear to meeting attendees that the meeting will start and end on time.

Kindly ask attendees to arrive between five to ten minutes early before a meeting. This ensures people have time to get themselves situated and prepared for the meeting to come.

Let people know there will be consequences if punctuality is not maintained. The meeting may go over time, which means people’s schedules could potentially be affected. Or perhaps an additional meeting or two may need to be held.

You may need to remind people if they arrive on time to the meeting, they can leave on time. That’s not a bad deal, now is it?

Designate a single meeting leader

A meeting leader is the person who will direct or run the meeting, from start to finish. It is their job to lead the meeting according to the items listed in the agenda.

Ultimately, they ensure topics are discussed, items are noted, side conversations are halted, and the meeting proceeds as planned.

The meeting leader role is not to be taken lightly. It is a serious role that can either drive the meeting forward or drive into a giant hole in the ground.

That’s why it’s crucial to identify a responsible, focused, competent, and driven meeting leader.

Now, you can certainly lead a meeting yourself. But if you haven’t yet mastered keeping a meeting on schedule to the minute or ending side conversations, you have one of two choices.

Either prepare yourself to lead the meeting with a strong hand or ask someone to lead the meeting for you in your place. It’s as simple as that.

And if you’re thinking about sharing the role with another person, think twice. Having more than one meeting leader can make things more complicated than they need to be. So, only give the meeting leader role to a single person.  

Place a ban on electronic devices

Electronic devices can cause unnecessary distractions during a meeting if people are mindlessly surfing the web, answering emails, or checking status updates.

To remedy this, put a temporary ban on electronic devices during meetings. You’re effectively eliminating distractions, so the meeting can take place, and end in a timely fashion.

Kindly ask meeting attendees to temporarily silence or turn off off their cell phones, tablets, or laptops. In some cases, you may wish to ask attendees to remove their devices from the table and place it in their pocket or bag.

And what if you’re the boss and are expecting an important call in the form of an announcement, update, or emergency? Then by all means keep your phone handy on your person.

Let others kindly know you’ll only pick up the phone in case there is an emergency call. This way, everyone understands the phone is not to be the main attraction of the meeting.

Keep the meeting table clear

The last thing you need at a meeting are unnecessary distractions like stacks of files, random office supplies, and sweaters.

Distractions and interruptions only hinder your ability to hold a productive meeting. Having fewer items on the table or in the meeting conference room will allow attendees to better focus on the meeting itself.

At the start of every meeting, politely ask meeting participants to remove anything unnecessary from the meeting table.

This may include cellphones, bags, backpacks, purses, briefcases, papers, books, and personal items.

If there’s a large amount of items that tend to appear during meetings, ask people to leave unneeded items at their desks, workspace, or in their office. Remind them to only bring items that are required for the meeting.

FAQ: Make meetings more efficient

Conclusion: Make meetings more efficient

Making meetings more efficient doesn’t have to be complicated—it’s all about preparation, focus, and respecting everyone’s time. With a clear agenda, the right people, and a strong leader, your meetings can become productive instead of draining.

Small changes, like starting on time and minimizing distractions, can make a big difference. When meetings are run well, they not only save valuable time but can also help you boost teamwork and creativity, and gain solid results.

In case we haven’t yet met virtually, it’s nice to meet you! Hi, I’m Rashelle Isip, The Order Expert®, productivity coach for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and executives.

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Rashelle Isip Productivity Coach and Founder of The Order Expert®

Rashelle Isip is a New York City-based productivity coach, consultant, and founder of The Order Expert®. With over 16 years of experience, she helps entrepreneurs and executives replace the "hustle and grind" mindset with one of "ease and flow." Rashelle is a former contributing columnist for Inc.com and Lifehack.org, and has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, NBC News, The Washington Post, and NPR. She is the author of four books, including The Order Expert’s Guide to Time Management. When not helping clients master their schedules, she enjoys scouting for practical, well-designed office supplies. Learn more at TheOrderExpert.com.

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