6 efficient ways to conduct remote team meetings with least wasted time

A meeting is an event where minutes are taken and hours wasted.

-James T. Kirk, Captain of the USS Enterprise

Remote team meetings took up a lot of time. They were a necessary nuisance for us.

Be it an oxymoron, the truth of these words resonated with us.
So we decided to do something about it!

Reforming Remote Team Meetings

We came up with a rhythm in which remote team meetings were to be held.
After a lot of testing and re-testing, we gathered ways that helped boost productivity, while allowing the teams to stay on the same page as each other.

I compiled them in an infographic to make them easy to understand.

Conclusion

To sum up, it is safe to say that meetings CAN be a huge waste of time, IF conducted without planning.

They can help your business grow, innovate and flourish, OR result in a major downfall. It is all up to you.

In short, meetings are meant to help your team communicate, stay in line with each other and get to know each other better within a co-working space. This doesn’t mean they have to waste hours of your precious time.

Let me summarise the six ways you can conduct productive and purposeful meetings to stay on the same page with your distributed teams.

1. Schedule all meetings | Plan your activities accordingly.
2. Fix a meeting day | Avoid impromptu ‘get togethers’ and work disruptions. 
3. Daily Briefings or Meet-ups | 5 minutes daily is better than 2 hours weekly.
4. Set a ‘fun-meeting’ day | Optional & recreational- helps teams interact.
5. Set up meeting agendas | Know what to talk about. Don’t jump in blindly. 
6. Track Time for Meetings | Most important! Time is money! 

You can go ahead and apply these ways to your business to see the productivity boost for yourself.

To learn more, check out this excellent guide to conducting remote team meetings.