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10 Best Tips To Prevent & Combat Meeting Fatigue At The Workplace

by Antispace

Too many meetings can zap our energy. After all, who hasn’t experienced a physical or mental crash after back-to-back meetings? Meeting fatigue is accurate, and its effects can seriously impact performance at work. One study found that employees lose an average of 31 hours yearly to unproductive meetings. That’s more than a full workweek! With the help of the best AI scheduling assistants, you can reduce energy-draining meetings and their negative impacts. In this article, we’ll explore meeting fatigue, its causes, and the best tips to prevent and combat it in the workplace. 

Antispace’s AI-based productivity operating system can help you achieve your goals by reducing unnecessary meetings and their negative impacts. The innovative platform creates space for focused work, so you can accomplish more before time-consuming meetings and reduce their frequency and duration.

What is Meeting Fatigue and Why Should You Care?

woman looking sad - Meeting Fatigue

Meeting fatigue, or “Zoom fatigue,” describes the exhaustion from attending in-person or online meetings. The term describes the burnout from attending too many meetings for too long. Like other types of fatigue, meeting fatigue affects us physically and mentally. The constant strain of being “on” for meetings can overwhelm workers, leading to undue stress that has real consequences on performance. 

What Causes Meeting Fatigue? 

Meeting fatigue can affect anyone, irrespective of role or hierarchy. The more meetings you attend, the more likely you are to experience meeting fatigue. Meeting fatigue can occur from having too many meetings in a day, but it can also happen when meetings are spread out over the day, disrupting a worker’s natural workflow. 

Individuals need time to prepare for meetings and even more time to decompress afterward and focus on their work. Without adequate breaks, workers can feel overwhelmed, leading to stress and anxiety. 

What are the Warning Signs of Meeting Fatigue? 

As mentioned, meeting fatigue impacts and symptoms include individuals who are stressed, anxious, and overloaded with work. This can show up in meetings when people who might usually be engaged seem 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 frequently request to push meetings to a future date. This can be especially common for regular meetings that are held every week. 

The Ripple Effect of Meeting Fatigue on Productivity and Deadlines

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

Common Causes Of Meeting Fatigue

man looking sad - Meeting Fatigue

The Dreaded Meeting Overload

Meeting fatigue has become all too common in our hyper-connected, post-pandemic world. The frequency of meetings has increased demonstrably due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Harvard Business Review found that people attend up to 13% more meetings now than in 2019. 

Executives spend an average of 23 hours a week in meetings. The face-to-face (or video) connection is not only emotionally taxing but also erodes the time that individuals have to complete their work, leading to feelings of stress and burnout. It becomes a vicious cycle. 

The Financial and Time Costs of Unnecessary Meetings in the Workplace

Businesses could save billions of dollars yearly by reevaluating when a meeting is and isn’t necessary. Atlassian’s study on meeting overload found that 45% of employees feel overwhelmed by the number of meetings in their schedule, and 47% say unnecessary meetings are the number one time-waster in the workplace. 

It’s also important to remember that a one-hour meeting with 10 people doesn’t cost just one hour – it costs 10 hours of company time. 

The Shocking Cost of Unproductive Meetings: Wasted Time and Billions Lost

Atlassian’s report found that the average employee wastes 31 hours in monthly unproductive meetings. Now multiply that by the number of staff in your business (and try not to scream). It doesn’t take long for all this time to add up, as Atlassian estimates that US businesses waste $37B every year on unnecessary meetings. It’s high time businesses found a better and more productive way for staff to use company time. 

Implementing Strategies to Minimize Meetings and Maximize Focused Work

A good way to overcome this issue is to carve out time in your calendar to avoid meetings or block days for focused work. Some organizations have even implemented a 

meeting-free day each week so that their people can focus on project work without the day being overrun with calls. 

It is also important to consider whether a meeting is essential in the first place. Could the same objectives be achieved differently? Furthermore, once you have decided that a meeting is necessary, choose only participants whose attendance is required.

The Stress of Back-to-Back Meetings

Many of us have experienced the feeling of rushing from one meeting to the next. It's unpleasant and leaves little time for meeting preparation, and the meeting begins with the feeling of being on the back foot. This increases the stress we experience during a meeting and enhances the overall emotional toll that the meeting takes. 

Reducing Meeting Fatigue with Breaks and Thoughtful Scheduling Policies

A solution here is to institute a company policy strongly discouraging or even forbidding back-to-back meetings. Even a ten-minute break between meetings or video calls is enough to alleviate much of the stress and fatigue that a meeting creates. This change needs to be led from the top down and communicated effectively so that people recognize the need for change. 

The Rise of Video Calls

The switch to remote working (and, therefore, to video calls) due to the COVID-19 pandemic was unexpected and unprecedented. Overnight, as much as 90% of the global workforce transitioned from meeting on-site and in-person to hosting all their online meetings. These virtual interactions have been proven to take a more significant toll on individuals than physical on meetings. 

Addressing Virtual Meeting Fatigue with Effective Collaboration Tools

According to the MIT Sloan Review, professionals “aren't used to the unnatural lack of nonverbal cues, prolonged eye contact, or overload of faces (including our own!) to process on the screen." And to add insult to injury, as we have already mentioned, the volume of meetings has also increased dramatically - in many cases to replace the physical interactions of the office. Using collaboration tools such as Slack or Microsoft Teams to create connections between distributed teams is a good way to alleviate the need for too many video check-ins and unnecessary calls. 

The Pain of Unnecessary Meetings 

Nothing is more frustrating than attending meetings that waste time—time that could be spent doing the actual work and reducing burdens in other areas of our professional lives. There is even a term to describe the time needed to recover after a frustrating meeting experience—it's known as ‘meeting recovery syndrome.’ 

On average, individuals need as much as 45 minutes to recover from a hostile meeting—and in many cases, there isn't enough time before the *next meeting* to do so, so the side effects are compounded.

Enhancing Meeting Effectiveness with Clear Objectives and Agendas

A way to overcome this is to ensure that all the meetings you organize or lead have an objective, are well-prepared (with a clear meeting agenda), and are well-run. This will help preserve the well-being of your participants and reduce the levels of frustration that they experience as a result of meetings. 

The Exhaustion of Lights, Camera, Action! 

As the world has become accustomed to remote and hybrid working, we have embraced technology to help support business continuity and to help us remain connected to one another at a time when physical distancing is necessary. A key contributor to the exhaustion from virtual meetings is always the need to have cameras switched on. 

While many leaders use this functionality to check in with their teams, it leads to greater exhaustion. A 2021 study by the Journal of Applied Psychology in the US found a significant correlation between having cameras switched on during meetings and fatigue.

Reducing Meeting Fatigue by Empowering Employees to Turn Off Cameras

Empowering your people with the option to turn their cameras off during meetings—at least some of the time—can effectively reduce meeting fatigue in your organization. Once again, this change must be led top-down so that individuals feel comfortable embracing it. 

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  • Email
  • Calendar
  • Notes
  • Slack
  • GitHub 

Our AI assistant handles everything from email management to task organization. Antispace acts like a virtual executive assistant by reducing context switching and automating routine tasks, letting you focus on what matters while our AI handles the rest. 

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Effects Of Meeting Fatigue On Individuals And Organizations

woman looking upset - Meeting Fatigue

Individual Impacts of Meeting Fatigue: Emotional Strain and Physical Discomfort

Individuals are feeling the weight of meeting fatigue. Research shows that too many virtual meetings create emotional fatigue, especially from video calls. In these meetings, participants are subjected to close-up views of each other that trigger stress responses in the brain. 

This is because, in real life, close-up views are generally reserved for intimate or confrontational scenarios; they are not meant for casual conversations. Seeing oneself during video calls increases self-critical thoughts and emotional exhaustion. This continuous self-monitoring creates a unique layer of stress that no one wants to deal with at work, leading to diminished focus and increased frustration over time. 

The Physical Toll of Excessive Video Meetings and the Importance of Movement

Excessive video meetings are also physically exhausting. Traditional in-person meetings often involve movement, such as walking between rooms, which aids physical and cognitive engagement. 

Virtual meetings limit mobility, as participants remain seated for extended periods. Prolonged sitting is associated with health risks, including musculoskeletal issues and poor mental performance. The lack of physical movement contributes to restlessness and reduces individuals’ ability to focus effectively. 

Individual Impacts of Meeting Fatigue: Cognitive Load

Meeting fatigue also increases cognitive load. Virtual meetings require participants to work harder to send and interpret non-verbal cues. While body language plays a significant role in communication, its nuances are more complex to discern on video calls. 

This increases cognitive effort as participants strive to clarify their gestures and interpret others’ expressions. The added mental load drains energy and reduces overall communication efficiency.

Organizational Impacts of Meeting Fatigue: Decreased Productivity

Meeting fatigue impacts individuals and organizations. Its effects trickle down to employees’ performance and the organization’s overall productivity. Individuals struggling with mental and physical exhaustion are less likely to contribute effectively during discussions or make informed decisions. This can result in reduced creativity and slower progress on critical projects. 

Organizational Impacts of Meeting Fatigue: Higher Burnout Rates

The cumulative effects of back-to-back virtual meetings lead to burnout, characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and diminished achievement. Burnout has a ripple effect on organizational health, increasing absenteeism, turnover, and healthcare costs while lowering morale and engagement. 

Organizational Impacts of Meeting Fatigue: Erosion of Collaboration and Team Dynamics

Meeting fatigue also erodes collaboration and team dynamics. The challenges of interpreting non-verbal communication in virtual settings can lead to misunderstandings and weakened relationships. Teams may struggle to build trust and maintain cohesion, negatively impacting collaboration and problem-solving.

10 Tips To Prevent & Combat Meeting Fatigue At The Workplace

man on a laptop - Meeting Fatigue

1. Hold Meetings Only When Necessary

Meetings have their place in improving communication and fostering collaborative problem-solving. They should always be a last resort. For example, if a manager wants updates on a project, it might be better to 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—without wasting their time attending a meeting they don’t need to attend. 

It can also help you review your recurring meetings regularly. Sure, they’re suitable for team communication. 

  • But how often do you need to conduct them? 
  • Can you reduce the frequency from daily to weekly? 
  • Can you shorten the agenda from an hour to 30 minutes? 

Consider what’s being said in your regular meeting and look for ways to condense or reduce it.  

2. Plan a Succinct Meeting

When you’ve decided a meeting is necessary, you can plan a succinct agenda. Ensure the agenda contains the key points that will fulfill the meeting’s objective. You can send this to attendees when you invite them to the meeting. 

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

3. Only Invite Essential People

Once you know the main objective of the meeting and have the agenda, you can decide who needs to attend. You should aim only to invite those who will benefit from attending the meeting and avoid inviting people who just “might” be required. 

If you find during the meeting that you need to ask a colleague who 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. 

Optimizing Meeting Attendance for Efficiency and Effective Communication

Often, it can be better to invite one or two people from a particular team or department rather than the entire team. The attendees can always pass down information to the rest of their team, or you can send the minutes around so people can 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 benefit them.  

4. Aim to Keep the Meeting Focused

Use the meeting agenda to ensure everyone stays on track. Meetings can often be diverted, either because someone raises a concern that isn’t entirely relevant or because a point is made that starts a separate discussion. These can often be worthwhile conversations, but the meeting might not be the most appropriate place to have them. 

Aim to keep tangential discussions to a minimum. If a valuable conversation that isn’t relevant to the meeting seems to occur, make a note to continue it after the meeting. The involved people could stay at the meeting for extra time, or a separate meeting or phone call could be organized.  

5. Use Helpful Engagement Tools

Using visual communication tools can help keep people engaged in a meeting. 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. 

If you are using a presentation, you can also utilize projection screens. This can help keep people’s attention by giving them something to look at and take notes on. You can then send the presentation to attendees after the meeting so they can refer to it.  

6. Assign Someone to Take Minutes or Notes

Someone who attends the meeting should be responsible for taking minutes or notes. These should cover the tasks that have been assigned and to whom, as well as any risks that were identified and what the follow-up will be. They should also include deadlines for tasks and projects and the 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 participate in the meeting but might now have a project-related responsibility or need to attend the next meeting.  

7. Make Meetings Harder to Schedule

Shopify famously canceled recurring meetings, blocked off Wednesdays on the calendar, and restricted when large gatherings could occur. The company enacted a cultural shift to scrutinize meetings as a cost that must be justified. Consider meeting-free days that apply to departments or even the whole organization. 

Managers encourage employees to create meeting-free blocks in their schedule for deep thinking. At a higher level, audit your company’s existing meetings to see what’s truly necessary and what could be communicated in another way.  

8. The Right Team Messaging App Can Replace a Lot of Meetings (and Emails)

With the rise of hybrid work, there’s been an increased need for asynchronous collaboration and live meetings. And that’s where team messaging comes in. With the right platform, you can stay connected to teams you’re part of without face-to-face contact. And some of these platforms have a lot of other features that can help cut back on regular meetings. 

For example, in team messaging apps, you can: 

  • Create unlimited 1:1 and group chats (both private and public) 
  • Invite guests from outside your org to collaborate 
  • Track projects with tasks 
  • Share files 
  • Pin meaningful conversations for later 
  • Easily search for topics and keywords to follow up on projects  

9. Document and Share Meeting Results

Fear of missing out (FOMO) compels people to attend meetings they shouldn’t. Organizers don’t want to leave people out, so they invite everyone wishing to weigh in. Having irrelevant people in a meeting de-energizes the conversation and disrupts productivity. How familiar is the feeling of joining a meeting, and the only words you say for an hour on Zoom are, “Hi everyone” and “Thanks, Bye”? 

Using Documented Meeting Outcomes to Enhance Productivity and Connectivity

Documented meeting results are the fastest and easiest way to combat meeting FOMO. Before the meeting, document its purpose and the desired outcomes. Then, post-written meeting results afterward. When people can see what a meeting is for and what happens afterward, they can decide whether to attend. 

This keeps meetings more focused and everyone more productive, reducing meeting fatigue. Documented meeting results are also key to keeping global teams connected. Organizations that retain central meeting records can maintain work velocity even when someone is traveling or unable to meet due to a timing conflict.  

10. Encourage Feedback

You should encourage and collect regular employee feedback to avoid meeting fatigue in your organization. Individuals should feel comfortable giving honest and constructive feedback about meetings, such as whether they feel meetings could be more structured or fewer meetings are required. 

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

7 Tips For Running Effective Meetings

woman on a laptop - Meeting Fatigue

1. Identify the Purpose and Goal of the Meeting

Before checking people’s calendars, ask yourself, “What do we need to accomplish in this meeting?” If it’s a recurring meeting, this will help you determine how often you need to meet. If you’re scheduling a planning session, for example, the purpose could be to identify the key milestones for your team’s yearly objectives, and the goal could be to determine deadlines and who’s responsible for each milestone. Once you’ve locked down the purpose and goal, you can start working your scheduling magic.

2. What to Include in Your Meeting Agenda

Now that you know why you’re having the meeting, it’s time to create an agenda to keep the discussion on track. While it’s tempting to quickly scribble it down on a Post-it right before the meeting, preparing your agenda will ensure you prioritize the right things and don’t forget something important. 

I’ll start by outlining the themes I want to focus on in the meeting. Your annual planning meeting could include discussing results, brainstorming, and action items to move planning forward. To help keep everything (and everyone) on track, assign time blocks to each topic so you can cover everything you need to.

3. Add Discussion Topic

Now it’s time to add the meat… er, topics you want to discuss. Add these to the appropriate agenda section so you can discuss them at the right time during the meeting. The more detailed I am about what I’d like to discuss, the better. If I create my agenda in the tool tracking my work, it’ll be easy to add existing work or link to relevant tasks so everyone has the context they need—and I won’t have to do extra work.

4. Share the Agenda with Attendees Before the Meeting

To get straight to business, share the agenda with attendees in advance. If it’s ready, you can include it in the meeting invite. This way, attendees will have time to familiarize themselves with discussion topics, prepare any needed information, or ask clarifying questions before the meeting. Also, this gives others a chance to add or suggest topics if something’s missing.

5. Assign a Note Taker 

Your notes will be the written record of your discussion, decisions, and next steps. They’re also helpful for people who could not attend a meeting (calendar conflicts are actual) but need to know what happened. So before the meeting, assign a note taker who ideally takes them in the same tool as your agenda and work. This way, when people need to reference decisions about milestones and projects from your planning meeting, they’ll know exactly where to look.

6. Work Through Standing Agenda Items & Discussion Topics 

Now is the time to encourage participation as we go through each topic. Hopefully, people will come prepared with information, thoughts, and questions since they’re familiar with the agenda (because you shared it beforehand). You want your teammates to feel like their voice matters, plus great ideas arise when people can bounce ideas off of each other freely. And since there’s structure, your discussion will stay focused as you go from one topic to the next.

7. Assign Action Items as You Go 

Track and assign follow-up and action items as they come up instead of waiting until the end. Don’t forget to include due dates for action items as well—this will keep teammates accountable and make expectations clear. It’s best to track these in your agenda (like in the template above) so teammates can reference the meeting notes for context. Once you wrap up your meeting, you won’t need to waste time sending the notes or assigning action items—they will already be done. 

The Value of Preparation: Hosting Purpose-Driven and Effective Meetings

While preparing for your meeting takes a bit of time upfront, hosting a productive and effective meeting is (almost) priceless. With a clear purpose, agenda, and actionable discussion, everyone will walk in knowing what to discuss and what’s next. And you’ll be a meeting superstar.

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Antispace: What Is It?

Antispace is a gamified, AI-powered productivity operating system that transforms how you approach your daily workflow. We seamlessly integrate with your essential tools: 

  • Email
  • Calendar
  • Notes
  • Slack
  • GitHub 

Our AI assistant handles everything from email management to task organization. Antispace acts like a virtual executive assistant by reducing context switching and automating routine tasks, letting you focus on what matters while our AI handles the rest. 

Whether you're brainstorming ideas, managing communications, or coordinating projects, Antispace turns productivity from a chore into an engaging experience. Get started for free with one click today.