WFH Productivity Tips for Meeting-Heavy Days

Some WFH productivity tips for those, like me, who spend most of their working day in meetings.

1. Cut the length of all your virtual meetings by 25%.

A one hour face-to-face meeting should be replaced by a 45-minute virtual meeting. Maintaining concentration in a video chat is harder than in a face-to-face meeting and – what’s more – continuously focusing on a small screen is taxing on your posture and your eyes.

2. Leave 15-minutes of white space for “post-meeting debriefs”.

The brief chats you have with your colleagues immediately after meetings have ended are the most valuable parts of your day. That’s where your real work is done. You’re able to download impressions while they’re still fresh and quickly formulate next steps.

Post-meeting debriefs occur naturally when we meet in-person, but seldom happen after a virtual meeting.

3. Spend as much time each day on phone calls as you do on video chats.

Phones may be an old technology but – modernity be damned – they are often the more effective medium, especially for one-on-one chats with people you already know well.

Phone calls are typically briefer, give your eyes a much-needed rest and allow you to walk while you talk.

WFH is different to WFO.