4 Warning Signs You’re Holding Too Many Meetings

Wrapped up your third meeting today and realized it’s already 5 p.m.?

You may feel somewhat unproductive since no real progress has been made.

Now, consider how your employees perceive their daily, monthly, and annual check-ins. 

One thing is surely crossing their minds as they nod absently during your Zoom calls:

I could be doing my job right now.

So, here are some ways to learn if you’re slowing down business with too many meetings — and powerful solutions to create a productive meeting culture.

But first, why has meeting overload become a thing?

Before learning how to avoid too many meetings, trace the problem to its origin — understand where it started and pinpoint its consequences.

So, let’s go back to the COVID era when virtual meetings became the norm. According to research on virtual teamwork, the pandemic forced office employees to work from home. 

Business owners had to rely on video chats for communication — deepening the existing problem of ineffective meetings.

Since then, people have returned to their offices, but the habit of holding virtual calls has stuck, mixing with in-person meetings. 

In 2022, scientists reviewed 253 publications and noticed a drastic increase in the number of meeting-related articles since the mid-2000s. They also identified 5 key topics, noting their frequency across all articles:

• Interacting (35.5%) — participation and communication in meetings,
• Engaging (21.1%) — motivation to take action in and after meetings,
• Leading (19.1%) — successful meeting management,
• Managing time (15.5%) — meeting effects on limited company time, and
• Relating (8.8%) — relationship building and maintenance via meetings.

Obviously, these stats reveal a growing concern about making meetings more effective. 

With more employees working remotely, companies have started juggling both virtual and on-site meetings.

However, over-relying on meetings to keep staff on track can backfire, leading to the most common indicators of meeting overload — which we’ll explore next.

Sign #1: Productivity is plummeting among employees

Holding too many meetings is among the most common distractions that inconvenience employees and drain productivity.

The proof is in the pudding: A recent Microsoft study shows that 68% of workers claim they lack enough uninterrupted time to focus on daily tasks.

This issue can quickly seep into other areas of an employee’s work routine — decreasing work quality (e.g., lack of innovation and creativity) and increasing the likelihood of missed deadlines.

So, your ticket to increased productivity is reducing meetings that break workers’ focus without good cause.

And here’s how you do it:

Solution 1: Allow employees to decline meeting invites if they see no work-related benefit in attending or if they could use the time to complete urgent tasks while maintaining quality.

Solution 2: Prioritize 1-on-1 meetings over group check-ins. This way, you gain insight into each employee’s personal workflow. Plus, your feedback can motivate them to work smarter.

When productivity drops, it often triggers another indicator of excessive meetings — employee frustration.

Sign #2: Workers are frustrated with too many meetings

The build-up of meetings can seriously impact your staff’s mental health — causing intense stress.

Let’s be clear: It’s normal for employees to feel a healthy pressure to participate in meetings and prepare for their topics.

However, as meetings become more frequent, it becomes harder for workers to stay motivated. This is especially true when the meeting agenda isn’t directly related to their tasks.

Enter meeting fatigue — feeling overwhelmed by lengthy and unnecessary meetings. 

According to a 2023 survey on meeting effectiveness, 64% of employees say excessive meetings are the number 1 cause of their fatigue.

If you ask the workforce, half of the meetings don’t address their particular work and could be reduced to an email or message. 

And that’s where the solutions lie:

Solution 1: Promote alternatives for sharing information, like messaging tools for instant communication. For example, use a chat app like Pumble to post quick updates or ask questions.

Solution 2: Only invite people relevant to the meetings, such as team leaders, project managers, and key team members. Additionally, try to set meetings only when the topic warrants a face-to-face conversation.

As workers become frustrated with endless meetings, their purpose becomes lost on employees — which we’ll discuss below.

Sign #3: Meetings are losing their purpose

Recurring meetings risk becoming pointless in the eyes of your employees. In turn, your staff may start zoning out and questioning if these meetings are a good use of their time at work.

With nothing to hold your workers’ attention, they quickly become bored and distracted during meetings. That’s why experts compare our brains to supercomputers that need to be kept busy to stay engaged. 

When under-stimulated, your mind tends to wander off in search of other entertainment, like daydreaming.

Naturally, the only way to fix these unproductive meeting behaviors is to run effective meetings that keep people involved and interested.

Here’s how to make that happen.

Solution 1: Set clear meeting goals to inspire meaningful discussions and motivate people to listen. For example, include extra notes in your weekly meeting invites, such as “project updates” and “clarifying roles.”

Solution 2: For full transparency, create a meeting invitation template that includes:

• Goal,
• Agenda,
• Time limit, and 
• Role of each person involved.

Unfortunately, meetings can turn into time wasters when no one sees the value in them. Enter the next downside of scheduling too many meetings — wasting time and money.

Sign #4: Excessive meetings are draining your time and wallet

As your meetings multiply, so do your costs. In contrast, your available time dwindles. 

That sounds like a lose-lose situation.

According to recent studies, up to 90% of your employees spend time on recurring tasks that burden them, such as meetings. This suggests that unnecessary meeting attendance might be burning a hole in your pocket.

The issue is so widespread that experts have created meeting cost calculators to help companies estimate how much time and money goes into meetings. In particular, these cost calculators take into account:

• Number of attendees,
• Meeting duration, and
• Average compensation.

So, use the following ideas to prevent excessive meetings from hurting your budget and business operations.

Solution 1: Shorten your attendee lists and limit meeting time to decrease company costs and save time. Fewer people in meetings means more employees are doing billable work. Additionally, shorter meetings give employees more time to complete projects on schedule. 

Solution 2: Implement at least 1 no-meeting day each week. Establishing a meeting-free day will not only motivate employees to do more productive work, but it’ll also help them manage time better.

With time and money at stake, consider taking the ultimate step in preventing too many meetings — changing your meeting culture.

Transform your company’s unproductive meeting culture with Clockify

The biggest barrier to introducing new meeting strategies is your current meeting culture. It’s shaped by the rules and habits that affect how your staff communicates and participates in meetings.

Clearly, the top 4 signs of holding too many meetings are a testament to a bad meeting culture. It boils down to having drawn-out check-ins that discourage meaningful conversations and hinder employee productivity. 

Fortunately, there’s a productive way to see if your meetings could’ve been emails — meet Clockify.

Our app’s powerful Reports let you see how much time you spend on meetings (unbillable activities) compared to actual productive work (billable activities). 

For example, you can use reports to see:

• How many people attend meetings, 
• How long meetings last, and 
• Whether meetings cut into productive work hours.

Our budget-friendly tool also lets you personalize your insight with various report types:

• Summary reports — a summary of all tracked activities grouped by team, project, and date,
• Detailed reports — a report with full details of all tracked activities, and
• Weekly reports — a weekly breakdown of tracked time per team and project.

Hence, you can create a better meeting culture by using time-tracking data to eliminate unnecessary meetings.

To top it off, you can rely on Clockify’s tailored onboarding. Its free-of-charge guidance can help you leverage this tool to ensure a healthy balance between holding meetings and maintaining productivity.