Meetings are an invaluable tool in the working world, helping individuals to collaborate, make decisions and track progress. However, the influx of meetings has resulted in an unforeseen cost – meeting fatigue. This is, unfortunately, a common issue that affects professionals across all industries, resulting in lowered productivity and increased stress levels.

As experts in productive meetings, in this blog we explore exactly what meeting fatigue is, the impact it has on individuals and productivity, and how to identify it. We’ll investigate how it can be avoided, offering practical strategies and guidance to ensure efficient, engaging meetings every time.

What is meeting fatigue?

Meeting fatigue encompasses the feelings of exhaustion, stress and frustration that come from individuals attending too many meetings.

Meeting fatigue can arise when someone feels overwhelmed with how many meetings they have to attend every week or even every day. Meeting fatigue can also develop when meetings go on for too long with unclear structures and/or objectives.

The impact of meeting fatigue

Meeting fatigue can have a number of adverse effects. It can negatively affect the individual by causing undue stress and anxiety. When someone has lots of meetings to attend, they will likely be unable to focus on their usual work. This can cause more work to mount up, leading to the individual feeling extremely overwhelmed. This can occur when someone has many meetings to attend in a day, but also when these meetings are spread throughout the day. If someone doesn’t have enough time between meetings to properly focus on their work, they could end up behind.

Another negative impact of meeting fatigue is on the productivity of the meetings. Attendees may be disengaged, not paying attention to what’s being said and missing vital information, either due to exhaustion or maybe because they are thinking about other work that needs to be done. They may also be disinterested and avoid contributing ideas and details that would be needed for a successful and productive meeting.

What are the warning signs of meeting fatigue?

As mentioned, an impact and symptom of meeting fatigue is individuals who are stressed, anxious and overloaded with work. This can show up in meetings when people who might usually be engaged seem to be disinterested and don’t contribute.

Another warning sign that employees are experiencing meeting fatigue is that they will avoid meetings. They may cancel at the last minute, or they may frequently request to push meetings to a date in the future. This can be especially common for regular meetings that are held every week.

Meeting fatigue can also be demonstrated with missed project deadlines. If people are having to spend most of their time in meetings, they will be unable to get on with their work. This will undoubtedly mean that deadlines will be missed as work can’t be conducted. This can further contribute to meeting fatigue, as project meetings will have fewer updates, resulting in a wasted meeting.

How to prevent meeting fatigue

There are a number of steps that can be taken to help avoid meeting fatigue and create a healthy and productive meeting culture in a business.

Only hold a meeting when absolutely necessary

Meetings can be a helpful and practical tool, helping to improve communication and give people a platform to raise concerns and solve problems collaboratively. However, it won’t always be the best option to hold a meeting. For example, if a team leader wants updates on a project, it might be better to instead ask for a project report from those working on it. This report can always be distributed to other team members to ensure everyone has the necessary updates, but can mean people don’t waste any time attending a meeting they don’t need to be in.

You could also review your regular meetings. It can be helpful for team communication to hold regular meetings for everyone on the team to inform others what they’re working on and where they might need support. However, it could be beneficial to look at how often you have this meeting. If you currently have a daily team stand-up, can this be reduced to weekly? If you currently have an hour-long weekly team meeting, can this be reduced to 30 minutes? Take note of what’s currently being said in your regular meeting and look for ways it can be condensed or reduced.

Plan a succinct meeting

When you have decided that a meeting is necessary, you can then plan a succinct meeting agenda. Make sure the agenda contains the key points that will fulfil the objective of the meeting. You can send this out to attendees when you invite them to the meeting.

An agenda lets people know what to expect from the meeting and assures them that their time won’t be wasted attending. It will also help to keep the meeting on track and prevent people from going on tangents that might not be relevant to the meeting or to other attendees.

Only invite essential people

Once you know the main objective of the meeting and have the agenda, you can decide who will need to attend. You should aim to only invite those who will benefit from being at the meeting and avoid inviting people who just “might” be needed. If you find during the meeting that you need to ask a colleague that isn’t in attendance a question, you can always call or message them. This way, they can pass on information without having to sit through an entire meeting that might not be relevant to them.

Often it can be better to just invite one or two people from a particular team or department, rather than the entire team. The people in attendance can always pass down information to the rest of their team, or you can send the minutes around so people can still stay updated with what was said. 

If you’re unsure about who needs to attend, you can ask them individually, or invite them on an “optional” basis, so they can decide for themselves. You could also put the meeting agenda somewhere central, such as on a notice board in a communal area, and give people the option to attend if they think it will be beneficial to them.

Aim to keep the meeting focused

Use the meeting agenda to make sure everyone stays on track. Often, meetings can be diverted, either because someone raises a concern that isn’t completely relevant, or because a point is made that starts a separate discussion. Often, these can be worthwhile conversations, but the meeting might not be the most appropriate place to have them.

Aim to keep any tangential discussions to a minimum. If a valuable discussion seems to occur that isn’t relevant to the meeting, make a note for it to be continued after the meeting. The people who are involved could either stay on the meeting for some extra time or a separate meeting or phone call could be organised.

Use helpful engagement tools

A way to help keep people engaged in a meeting is to use visual communication tools. For example, you can use a whiteboard to make notes during a meeting and write down ideas that people have contributed. This can give people something to refer to and build on, helping to cultivate better collaboration.

You can also utilise projection screens if you are using a presentation. This can help to keep people’s attention by giving them something to look at and make their own notes from. You can then send the presentation around to attendees after the meeting so they can refer to it.

Assign someone to take minutes or notes

Someone who attends the meeting should have the responsibility to take minutes or notes. This should cover the tasks that have been assigned and who they have been assigned to, as well as any risks that were identified and what the follow-up will be. It should include deadlines for tasks and projects and next steps.

These notes should then be distributed to everyone who attended the meeting. It might also be helpful to send them to relevant people who didn’t attend the meeting, but who might now have a project-related responsibility or need to attend the next meeting.

Encourage feedback

Lastly, in order to avoid meeting fatigue in your organisation, you should encourage and collect regular feedback from employees. Individuals should feel comfortable giving their honest and constructive feedback around meetings, for example, if they feel meetings could be more structured or if they feel fewer meetings are required.

Feedback could be collected via anonymous surveys if you want to ensure people feel able to give honest opinions. Alternatively, you could simply ask people via email to what they thought of the meeting and if they feel it could be improved in any way. You should then aim to act on relevant feedback and help to hone your meeting culture.

Conduct productive meetings with Nobo

Nobo has a huge range of practical communication tools to support your meetings and help  avoid meeting fatigue. From whiteboards and notice boards to projection tools and signage, we’re sure to have the solution you need for effective meetings and communication. Take a look at our range of products today to see how we can support your organisation.