Finding Focus: Personal Strategies to Reduce Meeting Multitasking

Before the pandemic, we collectively discouraged multitasking during meetings and workshops. If a colleague or trainer was speaking, everyone in the room could see if we were focused and listening.

During the pandemic and rise in virtual meetings, the ability to multitask grew as we were no longer under the watchful eye of our bosses, colleagues, and clients. We could simply turn off our camera to check our emails, type our reports, and prepare our lasagna with a side of steamed vegetables.

Yes, even I, an advocate against multitasking, have multitasked during virtual events. And sometimes it’s fine. There are meetings and workshops which don’t need my input or attention. One example: I often sign up for software companies’ promotional webinars to learn about their new product and then half-listen while perusing the day’s news or business articles. These are usually one-way webinars and any personal input, like survey questions, have no meaningful impact.

The problem we face is when we multitask and miss important information. Or when we are asked?to answer a question and have no idea what the conversation is about.

So what can we do to focus when it counts? How can we reduce our personal multitasking in important online events?

Let’s look at 2 topics:

1. The prevalence and consequences of multitasking in the business world

2. Personal strategies to find our focus

This article is not about limiting other people’s multitasking; it’s about personal approaches. I encourage you to share personal strategies, share this article, and share the linked articles with those who might need to increase their own focus, manage better meetings, or simply stop holding wasteful meetings

The prevalence and consequences of multitasking in the business world

Why am I even writing this article? Don’t people know that multitasking is often counterproductive? Don’t people already know when they should stop multitasking and focus on the collaborations at hand?

Given the prevalence of multitasking in business events, either a lot of people don’t know the effects of multitasking, don’t care, or don’t think the research applies to them. Here are some quick facts about multitasking and links for further exploration.

Only 2.4% of people can multitask effectively according to studies on multitasking in general (not just in meetings).

First off, don’t feel bad if you do other work during useless meetings. In 2020, the pandemic hit and by the end of the year, the number of meetings people attended rose by 13%. There were also 13.5% more people in meetings.

On the plus side, the duration of meetings went down 20%.

However, when these findings are combined, it means there are more meetings which are shorter in length with more attendees, and all of this means less time for us to contribute. In other words, We are being ignored in meetings, and it’s natural to find something?to do.

Luckily, in the 2nd half of 2022, many companies are realizing we have to change our meeting culture. Researchers are looking at statistics before the pandemic and trying to find ways to make long-term improvements. For example, in 2014, 15% of organizations’ time was spent in meetings. In 2019, employees were averaging 12 hours per week preparing for and attending meetings.

Some managers were spending 20 hours a week in meetings!

Now, if those meetings were productive or engaging for everyone involved, that’d be awesome! Yet they weren’t before 2020, and they still aren’t today. Well, maybe your meetings are the exception to the norm. Here’s the norm:

In 2019, Korn Ferry found that 67% of professionals surveyed said they spent too much time in meetings and on calls, which distracted them from their work. Also, 34% said meetings and calls that accomplished nothing happened 2-5 hours per week.

In 2022, Harvard Business Review published a study that included these frightening findings:

-70% of all meetings stop people from getting their work done

-92% of employees feel that meetings are “costly and unproductive”

What does this mean? A UK study of 1,989 workers showed the average amount of productive time per day was 2 hours and 23 minutes.

If you’d like to dive into WHY meeting after meeting after meeting are scheduled and the psychological toll it takes, check out this great HBR article.

Before we jump to the 2nd section of personal tips, let’s end this pessimistic collection of research with a bright light. During the pandemic, McKinsey found 80% of executives were making changes to meeting structure and scheduling to adapt to the changing world of WFH and hybrid offices.?

This is great news, since productivity can increase 71% when meetings are reduced by 40%. This is great for both company and colleagues: more productivity and quality of work in the office, and people go home on time.

Personal strategies to reduce our own multitasking

So you’ve found yourself in a meeting and you want to focus. The urge to multitask is there, yet you know the meeting requires your attention or you simply want to butter up the bosses with your perceived sense of engagement.

1. Turn on your webcam

If your camera is on, you’re likely trying to be a full meeting participant or at least look productive. Consider what happens in traditional in-person meetings: you look at the person speaking. If you look at your phone, computer, or window for too long, it’s telling. Virtual meeting “eye contact” works differently, yet we can often tell when someone is paying attention.

The simple awareness of being visible may be enough to keep your focus (even in dull meetings). If you MUST multitask and be on camera, at least move the app you’re using near your webcam so it seems like you’re listening!

Bonus points for people who assume that managers pay attention to who is and who is not on video. They are.

2. Take notes

You may not NEED to take notes during your next meeting, but taking notes might help you focus on what’s being said, how you’re interpreting it for your notes, and simply gives you something to do.

The caution: where are you looking while you are taking notes? If you’re using pen and paper, you might be looking away from the webcam or monitor. Typing on a Word document or notes app positioned near your webcam might help increase virtual eye contact.

If in doubt, talk to your meeting attendees or managers. Tell them you’re taking notes in order to focus, or even better, be the meeting scribe and share your notes later.?“I’m giving myself a task to increase my meeting focus” sounds like the kind of person we want attending our meetings.

Or if you want to take it step further, try your artistic side.

3. Use closed captioning or transcription services

Most virtual platforms have closed caption abilities, and transcription services like Otter can transcribe meeting content on the spot.

Giving yourself something to read is just another way to give yourself something to do. Sight is our dominate sense, and reading text while listening to spoken content might help combat the fatigue we feel when looking at boxes of people’s faces.

Young generations already prefer subtitles when watching TV and movies, too, so why not add the preference to video communications?

4. Close your apps and notifications

This applies to your computer and your smart devices. No pop-ups and no dings = fewer distractions. I know many managers who will say this isn’t feasible and they are always reachable. There may still be ways to limit?notifications like turning your phone onto silent (not vibration, that’s not silent) and putting the phone face down slightly out of comfortable reach.

5, Give your hands something to do

People like to fidget, and that often turns into using phones or using mice or trackpads to navigate web pages. Giving our hands something to do can help us focus on the task at hand.

Aside from buying a fidget spinner (the 2017 fad if pre-pandemic happenings seem 10 years ago), invest in a professional stress ball or any comfortable, moveable object that doesn’t cause a distraction (no sound-making devices or amateur juggling practice on camera). There’s a reason people spin pens in their fingers during meetings, and that may be just what you need to add a little focus.?

You might even consider giving your feet something to do by investing in a massage ball or foot massage machine, which I recommended in another article (no. 24 on the list).

Having a favorite beverage nearby may also be what you need, for both your hands and your caffeine.?

6. Chat with another meeting attendee about the meeting content

If you find yourself in a meeting where you want to focus and may benefit from some other human interaction, arrange with a colleague to chat about the meeting while it’s happening.

Keep in mind, this has to be about the meeting content with a focus on focus. It has the potential to go off the rails quickly as we start typing about our weekend plans and other non-meeting projects. It also has the potential to make you look elsewhere on your screen or even smile as a reaction to something that was not said during the meeting.

“Robert, our 3rd quarter budget plans are amusing to you?”

“No, I was just smiling at something Zachary sent me.”

“Well stop multitasking and focus on the meeting.”

“I was focusing on the meeting, I was typing and…”

If you are able to control the content of your messages, private meeting chat might be what keeps you from personal email or the daily news, so it’s worth it.

7. Participate (even when not asked)

This is tough if the meeting organizer has created a one-way, one-hour lecture (that likely should’ve been an email or a video).

Obviously, if the meeting organizer is asking for participation: do it. Hit the emoji. Type in the chat. Complete the survey. Write on the whiteboard. Speak off mute.?

Take these virtual meeting functions and use them even when not being asked. Do this when you think it adds value, input, ideas, or feedback to the meeting. Do NOT do this when you think it is distracting others. In good cases, you’ll inspire others to add non-verbal input or chat messages about the meeting, too, and possibly inspire the organizer to create times for these functions in future meetings.

8, Create breaks between your meetings and tasks

If possible, don’t schedule back-to-back meetings that leave you zero time for breaks. When you’re working on personal tasks, force yourself to have a break before the meeting. Stand up. Make coffee (or lasagna if time). Walk around. Look outside. Clear your mind and get ready to focus, because let’s face it, many meetings are bad and lack interaction.

Creating focus and not multitasking is often tougher than multitasking itself. Prepare for the next video conference, and build long-term productive meeting habits.

What’s missing? What personal strategies do you use or recommend for others? Feel free adding them in the comments.