Best Practices to Stay Focused in Long Meetings

Meetings are an inevitable part of everyone who worked in a team. In other words: for the majority of us, there’s no way of skipping them. In most cases, meetings are time-consuming, boring and unproductive. And let’s be honest, we spend the majority of our meeting time wishing they’re over. That’s why we decided to share with you some tips on how to stay focused on long meetings and make your time worth the trouble.

An ultimate tip on how to stay focused in long meetings is to be prepared for it.

Americans have more than one billion meetings per year. That’s an insane amount of time and money they spend talking behind closed doors. It’s sad, considering that meetings, as we know them, are nothing but a complete waste of time. 

To make the most out of the meeting and stay focused to make sure you know the agenda. Managers should always prepare the “minutes of the meeting” for all participants and give them time to prepare themselves. Knowing what would be the topics, they will be able to anticipate the questions and make the notes they can use later in the meeting.

Knowing your role in the meeting will help you stay focused in long meetings.

It happened to all of us to find ourselves in the meeting we couldn’t participate properly, or find we shouldn’t even be supposed to be there. Managers tend to make poor judgement when it comes to inviting people too often. And staying focused in meetings has a lot to do with one’s relevance in it. That’s why we would like to give a tip to managers to carefully select and invite-only relevant people when planning a meeting.

A good night’s sleep will help stay focused in long meetings.

There are too many things we owe to sleep. Both our physical and mental health is dependent on it and our concentration craves it. If you have a long meeting planned in your calendar, make sure you’re well-rested when the date comes. You’ll be more able to stay focused if your mind is fresh and you’re not sleepy.

Taking notes can be a resourceful way that can make you stay focused in long meetings.

Taking notes might be a good idea to keep yourself focused and engaged at the meetings. The point is: by taking notes you’re forcing yourself to stay present in the meeting and pay attention to what other people are saying. Additionally, taking notes might be a good way of remembering what you should do after the meeting is over and what’s your part in those decisions. 

Everybody needs time off. Even from the meetings.

If you feel like you’re putting too much effort into staying focused in a meeting, maybe you just crave a vacation. Vacation Tracker is helping teams stay their best selves throughout the year by enabling them to manage their workforce on time and with precision. We made leave tracking easy and enabled teams to send and approve requests within minutes. No-fuss, no-nonsense, efficiency is our motto. Make sure you try it out by signing up for a free 7-day trial. Won’t hurt, we promise!

Ana Mladenovic

A cat enthusiast and a cupcake maniac, Ana is a freelance Content Writer passionate about HR, productivity, and team management topics. When she’s not at her keyboard, you can find Ana in the kitchen, trying to make delicious cookies.