Do you know that people in America spend an incredible 35-50 percent of their workdays in meetings? But do you also know that many of those meetings are typically useless and soul-crushingly boring? Well, we hope for the day when managers scrub our calendars of these time-sucking irrelevancies, but also hope for peace and satisfaction too. Sadly, none of the above is likely to happen sometime soon. Hence, we wait for the definitive fix to the problem. So, is there any way you can easily salvage a scarp of productivity from the most useless meetings on your calendar? If experts are to be believed, then it is of course a ‘yes’. There is always something positive for you to covertly do while your colleagues discuss irrelevant stuff or engage in heated arguments.
So, here are a couple of ideas you should do:
1. Counting your blessings:
Science shows that continuously counting your blessings fills your brain with positivity and happiness. So, why not use that dead time stuck in the conference room and practice gratitude? While the speaker drones on you can silently think about things you are grateful for, or can make a mental list of a few specific people who you would like to send a thank you note after you escape your boring meeting.
2. Doodling:
Ok! I confess to being an inveterate doodler, who does not use a pen and paper. I always feel guilty about it, but these days I am worried about this habit.
Why? Because doodling is not just a way to fight off boredom. Not only drawing helps you work through half-cooked ideas, but it can be more creative. It helps you recall boring information. So, o ahead and sketch your way through those hideously pointless meetings without going through any guilt trips.
3. Practicing Mindfulness:
One way to survive a boring meeting is by sewing, knitting, and engaging in the hobby you are in love with. Of course, unless your office is open to quirky in-person meeting ideas, this would not work in-person meetings, but pursuing these activities while on the phone is not just useful, but also zen.
Psychologists say that activities like painting, cooking, knitting, or gaming focus our attention on our present work like a form of mindfulness, and give some mind-clearing benefits as more formal meditation. This also means that you are not only making a nice scarf but also centering yourself mentally for the entire day.
Or if you are at work and there is a contentious meeting going on, and your tempers keep on starting to flare, then you do not have to open up the closet and pull out all this equipment, light the incense, sit down cross-legged and look weird. You simply have to focus and breathe. No one will know that you are doing it.
4. Daydreaming:
If your boss is watching participants for any sign of wandering attention, then creative ideas would not be possible. But even the most unreasonable manager cannot cage your thoughts. So, it is crucial to use them productively without wasting any time.
This does not mean scrapping your imaginary vacation. It also means that you should engage in positive constructive daydreaming. The idea is to let your mind wander by imagining or rehearsing for an upcoming project. Semi-focused daydreaming helps you think through and get ready for your future. It also helps in improving real-life performance when the right time comes.
5. Developing a plan to destroy useless meetings:
While all these ways of getting some use out of boring meetings are helpful, another alternative would be to not have a pointless get-together in the first position. So, you can use today’s lost time to plan for less meeting-filled future scenarios.
These are all sort of techniques that reduces the amount of time you spend in useless meetings. Another way is to corral all your meetings in one day and give yourself that unbroken time to do thorough work.
Also, you can ponder the possibilities while your current meeting chugs along. So, consider which works the best in your case and tactfully deal with all this.
We hope these ideas will help you to get rid of those useless meetings and will help you do something very productive.
