www.atlassian.com Open in urlscan Pro
18.165.183.83  Public Scan

Form analysis
3 forms found in the DOM

GET https://www.atlassian.com/blog/

<form class="search-form" action="https://www.atlassian.com/blog/" method="get">
  <label class="screen-reader-text" for="search">Search in https://www.atlassian.com/blog/</label>
  <div class="row">
    <div class="col-10">
      <input type="text" class="search-input" name="s" id="search" placeholder="Search for something" value="">
    </div>
    <div class="col-1 offset-1">
      <button class="search-submit" type="submit" data-event-container="searchForm" data-event-component="button" data-label="Search" data-uuid="37eb57a28d5b7f62ec52c63351f74e55">
        <i class="icon-search" aria-hidden="true"></i>
        <span class="screen-reader-text">Search</span>
      </button>
    </div>
  </div>
</form>

GET https://www.atlassian.com/blog/

<form class="search-form" action="https://www.atlassian.com/blog/" method="get">
  <label class="screen-reader-text" for="search">Search in https://www.atlassian.com/blog/</label>
  <div class="row">
    <div class="col-10">
      <input type="text" class="search-input" name="s" id="search-mobile" placeholder="Search for something" value="">
    </div>
    <div class="col-1 offset-1">
      <button class="search-submit" type="submit" data-event-container="searchForm" data-event-component="button" data-label="Search" data-uuid="37eb57a28d5b7f62ec52c63351f74e55">
        <i class="icon-search" aria-hidden="true"></i>
        <span class="screen-reader-text">Search</span>
      </button>
    </div>
  </div>
</form>

POST

<form method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data" id="consenthub-form">
  <input type="hidden" name="action" value="atlassian_blog_process_consenthub">
  <header class="form-heading">
    <span class="subscribe-label">Subscribe to Work Life</span>
    <h3 class="form-description">Advice, stories, and expertise about work life today.</h3>
  </header>
  <div id="consenthub_error_msg"></div>
  <div class="form-body">
    <label class="sr-only" for="consenthub_email">Email<span class="gfield_required">*</span></label>
    <div class="form-input-container form-input-container-email">
      <input name="consenthub_email" id="consenthub_email" type="text" value="" class="large" tabindex="5" placeholder="Email Address" aria-required="true" aria-invalid="false">
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="form-footer">
    <input type="hidden" id="consenthub_key" value="atlassian.atlassianBlog">
    <input type="hidden" id="consenthub_success_msg" value="We know your inbox is protected space, so we promise to send only the good stuff, twice a month.">
    <input type="submit" id="consenthub_form_submit" class="button button__primary--yellow" value="Subscribe" tabindex="6">
  </div>
</form>

Text Content

Skip to main content

Atlassian

 * Work Life
   
 * Products & news
   
 * Team Playbook
   
 * Community
   

More from Atlassian
 * Topics
    * Communication The subtle science of storytelling at work New research:
      Write more clearly and become a super communicator How to avoid “emotional
      overhead” at work (hint: emojis are ) How to overcome the “grid effect” in
      virtual meetings More in Communication
    * Distributed Work An intentional solution for worker loneliness Atlassian’s
      distributed work glossary New research: better meetings start with a page
      Office attendance doesn’t drive team connection. So what does? More in
      Distributed Work
    * Leadership 8 proven leadership principles and the psychology behind them 6
      ways leaders can build a culture of voice  How and when to use an
      authoritative leadership style Dr. Fei Fei Li on maintaining our humanity
      as we expand the boundaries of artificial intelligence More in Leadership
    * Productivity AI Collaboration Report: “Using” AI is not enough – here’s
      what your organization is missing Trouble making time for work that
      matters? Try the $10 Game Science-backed productivity playlists to help
      you dive into deep work How to help your team stop worrying and love
      transformative tech More in Productivity
    * Strategy From $0 to revenue in 6 months: How Uday Chakravarthi unlocked
      rapid startup growth at Clinch AGI Getting started with generative AI Do
      this, not that: A user’s guide to generative AI 4 ways nonprofit teams can
      build resilience and adaptability More in Strategy
    * Teamwork 10 teamwork examples to inspire your best work together How to
      cultivate a blameless culture Bookmark this blog: 148 icebreaker questions
      you’ll keep coming back to A new language for teamwork: our journey to a
      reimagined visual system More in Teamwork
   
   
 * Collections
   Earnings Reports
   “Open company, no bullshit” isn’t just one of our values. It’s a way of life
   at Atlassian. Here’s what we’re sharing with our investors and stakeholders
   each quarter.
   Wellbeing at Work
   Laying the groundwork for better employee health and happiness.
   Company Culture
   Embrace transparency, foster a sense of belonging, form connections – and
   have fun along the way.
   Ways of Working
   How you work is just as important as the work you’re doing.
   Your Personality at Work
   Navigating and celebrating the complexities of our individuality.
   The Flywheel Growth Model
   There are loads of ways to grow a company – learn about our approach here.
   
   
 * Resources
   View All Resources
   Podcasts
   
   Should your team set aside time for virtual hangs?
   
   Does your team need a regular No Meeting Day?
   
   Do emojis belong in the workplace?
   
   Is it time to ditch the remote daily stand up? More episodes
   Guides and Research
   
   State of Teams 2024
   
   Circle Back: an Atlassian zine
   
   Workplace Woes: Meetings
   
   Lessons Learned: 1,000 Days of Distributed at Atlassian More in guides and
   research
   Quizzes
   QUIZ
   Have you mastered the fine art of speaking up at work?
   QUIZ
   Does your team have a toxic workplace culture?
   QUIZ
   What’s your virtual meeting IQ?
   QUIZ
   What kind of feedback do you give? More in quizzes

 * About
   About Work Life
   
   Work Life is Atlassian’s flagship publication dedicated to unleashing the
   potential of every team through real-life advice, inspiring stories, and
   thoughtful perspectives from leaders around the world.
   
   Learn more about Work Life
   Contributors
   Kelli María Korducki
   
   Contributing Writer
   
   Dominic Price
   
   Work Futurist
   
   Dr. Mahreen Khan
   
   Senior Quantitative Researcher, People Insights
   
   Kat Boogaard
   
   Contributing Writer
   
   Sarah Goff-Dupont
   
   Principal Writer

    * Searchform

 * Subscribe

Search
Primary Menu
Search in https://www.atlassian.com/blog/
Search
 * Topics
   Communication
   Distributed Work
   Leadership
   Productivity
   Strategy
   Teamwork
   
   Subscribe
   
   Culture, tech, teams, and tips, delivered twice a month
   
   Subscribe
 * Collections
   Earnings Reports
   Wellbeing at Work
   Company Culture
   Ways of Working
   Your Personality at Work
   The Flywheel Growth Model
   
   Subscribe
   
   Culture, tech, teams, and tips, delivered twice a month
   
   Subscribe
 * Resources
   Podcasts
   Guides and Research
   Quizzes
   
   Subscribe
   
   Culture, tech, teams, and tips, delivered twice a month
   
   Subscribe
 * Search
   Search in https://www.atlassian.com/blog/
   Search
   
   Subscribe
   
   Culture, tech, teams, and tips, delivered twice a month
   
   Subscribe

Published May 21, 2024 in Productivity


MEETING OVERLOAD IS REAL – HERE’S WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

How to de-clutter your calendar and regain control of your workday

Published May 21, 2024 in Productivity
Dr. Molly Sands

Head of the Teamwork Lab


OUR PRODUCTS

Learn more about Atlassian tools that can help you cut down on meetings.

Click here

What’s stopping you from getting work done? If you said “too many meetings,”
you’re not alone. We surveyed 5,000 knowledge workers across 4 continents, and
they identified meetings as the #1 barrier to productivity, outranking lack of
motivation, unclear goals, and uncertainty around who to collaborate with.

In other words, we now have data to back up what we already knew in our gut to
be true: meetings are grossly overused.

They clutter our calendars, leaving only fragments of time here and there for
deep, focused work. This is exacerbated when teams are spread across different
time zones, yet continue defaulting to meetings.

And those marathon back-to-back days are taking a toll. 76% of respondents say
they feel drained on days with lots of meetings, and over half work overtime a
few days a week because meetings prevent them from completing their work during
the day. Not only that, but meetings rarely accomplish their intended goal,
according to respondents.

It doesn’t have to be like this. Our research identified three types of meetings
you can cancel today and replace with asynchronous collaboration – i.e.,
teamwork that doesn’t happen in real time. With the tips below, we’ll help you
end the meeting madness and regain control of your time.


STATUS UPDATES


FROM THE ATLASSIAN PLAYBOOK

The Weekly Team Update Play is a quick, asynchronous recap of achievements,
projects, and roadblocks, shared at the start or end of each week. It’s a
low-effort practice with a big impact.

Run the Play

If there’s one meeting that could should be an email, it’s the status meeting.
Typically, the meeting lead is the only person truly paying attention. Everyone
else pretends to listen to the all updates that aren’t relevant to them while
they do other work and wait for their turn to speak. What a waste.

Fortunately, the rise of digital project tracking and collaboration tools
provides easy ways to update each other async. An informative comment on each
task usually does the trick for brief updates. And if not, follow-up questions
can also be asked and answered async right there in the tool. When there’s a
more complex issue to sort out, we recommend taking a page from our own teams at
Atlassian: create a shared document. (We use Confluence, but other documentation
tools work well for this, too.) Lay out the problem, along with potential
solutions, and ask others to drop in-line comments with their input.

For higher-level updates on the project as a whole, try jumping on the async
video trend. Views on Loom’s platform were up 37% in 2023, with customers
reporting 23% fewer meetings that year. Why? Video updates are the best of both
worlds: easier to create than an email and faster to consume than a meeting,
while also conveying human elements like tone of voice and facial expressions.


GROUP DECISIONS

Related Article

LESSONS LEARNED: 1,000 DAYS OF DISTRIBUTED AT ATLASSIAN

By Annie Dean In Distributed Work

71% of respondents say setting up a meeting is the only way they can get their
colleagues to make decisions as a group. Yet 24% also say meetings are not the
most effective way to get this job done. Taken together, the data suggest that
meetings may be regarded as a necessary evil or a method of last resort in the
context of decision-making. But you can replace a series of meetings that fail
to actually drive a decision with clear, structured documentation, and (maybe)
one live discussion. As a bonus, writing it all down tends to sharpen your
thinking on it.

The next time you need your team to make a decision, try doing it asynchronously
first. Set up a page or shared document that provides background information on
the question at hand, the options in front of you, and your recommendation.
Share it with your team and set a deadline for voting on their preferred option.

Chances are, you’ll be able to reach a decision without a meeting. But let’s
face it: sometimes further discussion is needed. In those cases, try
facilitating a live page review meeting.

 1. Have everyone mute themselves or simply call for quiet during the first
    several minutes so people can review and comment on your page individually.
 2. As facilitator, take in comments as they’re made and flag a subset of them
    for live discussion.
 3. Once you’ve aligned on a decision, note it along with next steps and owners
    on your page.
 4. Share the page with relevant stakeholders for visibility.


TEAM BUILDING

A sense of community and belonging boosts engagement and, therefore,
productivity. But in an increasingly distributed world, how do you go about
building those bonds without even more meetings? Just do the work together.

44% of workers we surveyed say meetings are their go-to for driving team
connection. Yet 55% say they feel lonely at work even on days they have a lot of
meetings, demonstrating how misguided this approach is. When we asked workers
what does make them feel more connected to their team, 38% pointed to
celebrating a win, 45% said working through a challenging project together is
good for bonding, and only 17% said meetings.

Once more for those in the back: people are roughly 3x more likely to feel
connected through working on hard problems than by being in meetings together.

Maybe the work happens when you’re together in the same room, maybe it’s over
video calls, or maybe it happens async. It’s about what you spend your time on,
not the medium you use to connect.

Related Article

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO REMOTE MEETINGS THAT DON’T SUCK

By Atlassian In Distributed Work

That’s not to say that getting together in person holds no value – quite the
opposite. As part of our commitment to solving the challenges around distributed
work, we ran internal experiments over the course of a year and found that just
a few days of intentional togetherness – e.g., workshops, strategizing, having
fun – builds bonds that last for months.


IF YOU CAN’T CANCEL IT, IMPROVE IT

We’ll never get rid of meetings entirely. In truth, they can be very effective
when used for the right purpose and run the right way. I’ll leave you with three
tips:

 1. Set a clear goal. 62% of respondents say they show up at most meetings
    without even knowing what they’re trying to accomplish. Agendas are one way
    to share the goal, but lots of meetings don’t need this amount of structure.
    A simple sentence saying what you want to happen by the end of the meeting
    might do the trick.
 2. Challenge the 30-minute convention. That’s too long for a check-in and too
    short for deep, complex discussions. 80% of respondents think most of their
    meetings could be done in half the time. That won’t always prove true, but
    it’s amazing how much be accomplished in 15 minutes if the meeting is
    focused and facilitated well. Speaking of which…
 3. Become an ace facilitator. A top-reported frustration with meetings is that
    one or two people tend to dominate the conversation, making it hard to
    contribute ideas. A good facilitator can prevent or disrupt this – this free
    training course can help.

And those 5,000 knowledge workers we surveyed? You can find the complete results
of our study here, along with even more ways to tame meeting overload. Here’s to
the future of work: focused, fruitful, and free of useless meetings.

About this Article
Published May 21, 2024
About the Author

Dr. Molly Sands Head of the Teamwork Lab

 * Facebook
 * Twitter
 * Linkedin
 * Pocket
 * Email

Related Content


MORE IN PRODUCTIVITY

Productivity

AI COLLABORATION REPORT: “USING” AI IS NOT ENOUGH – HERE’S WHAT YOUR
ORGANIZATION IS MISSING

Productivity

TROUBLE MAKING TIME FOR WORK THAT MATTERS? TRY THE $10 GAME

Productivity

SCIENCE-BACKED PRODUCTIVITY PLAYLISTS TO HELP YOU DIVE INTO DEEP WORK

Strategy

HOW TO HELP YOUR TEAM STOP WORRYING AND LOVE TRANSFORMATIVE TECH

MORE COLLECTIONS

Collection


COMPANY CULTURE

Embrace transparency, foster a sense of belonging, form connections – and have
fun along the way.

View Collection
Collection


YOUR PERSONALITY AT WORK

Navigating and celebrating the complexities of our individuality.

View Collection
Collection


EARNINGS REPORTS

A look at what we're sharing with our investors and stakeholders each quarter.

View Collection
Collection


COMPANY CULTURE

Embrace transparency, foster a sense of belonging, form connections – and have
fun along the way.

View Collection
Collection


YOUR PERSONALITY AT WORK

Navigating and celebrating the complexities of our individuality.

View Collection
Collection


EARNINGS REPORTS

A look at what we're sharing with our investors and stakeholders each quarter.

View Collection
Collection


COMPANY CULTURE

Embrace transparency, foster a sense of belonging, form connections – and have
fun along the way.

View Collection
Collection


YOUR PERSONALITY AT WORK

Navigating and celebrating the complexities of our individuality.

View Collection
Collection


EARNINGS REPORTS

A look at what we're sharing with our investors and stakeholders each quarter.

View Collection
Previous SlideNext Slide


MEETING OVERLOAD IS REAL – HERE’S WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT

 * Subscribe

 * Facebook
 * Twitter
 * Linkedin
 * Pocket
 * Email

Join over 150,000 working professionals

By Atlassian

Culture, tech, teams, and tips, delivered twice a month

Sign me up!
 * Atlassian.com
 * Terms of Use
 * Privacy Policy
 * Your Privacy Choices
 * Copyright © 2024 Atlassian

Subscribe to Work Life


ADVICE, STORIES, AND EXPERTISE ABOUT WORK LIFE TODAY.


Email*


This site uses cookies to improve your browsing experience, perform analytics
and research, and conduct advertising. To change your preferences, click Manage
preferences. Otherwise, clicking Accept all cookies indicates you agree to our
use of cookies on your device. Clicking Reject all cookies means you do not
agree to our use of non-strictly necessary cookies on your device.Atlassian
Cookies and Tracking Notice
Manage preferences Reject all cookies Accept all cookies



MANAGE PREFERENCES

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your
browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you,
your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you
expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can
give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to
privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the
different category headings to find out more and change our default settings.
However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site
and the services we are able to offer.
More information
Accept all

STRICTLY NECESSARY COOKIES

Always Active

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched
off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you
which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy
preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block
or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

TARGETING COOKIES

Targeting Cookies

These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may
be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you
relevant adverts on other sites. They are based on uniquely identifying your
browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will
experience less targeted advertising.

FUNCTIONAL COOKIES

Functional Cookies

These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and
personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose
services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some
or all of these services may not function properly.

PERFORMANCE COOKIES

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and
improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the
most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. If you do not
allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will
not be able to monitor its performance.

Back Button


COOKIE LIST



Search Icon
Filter Icon

Clear
checkbox label label
Apply Cancel
Consent Leg.Interest
checkbox label label
checkbox label label
checkbox label label

Reject all Confirm my choices