If a productive meeting is a challenge for many “in person”—the move to digital has only proven more so. 

Luckily, we’ve found some simple ways to make the most of the “new normal.”

Here are 9 tips to try out next time you’re meeting online!

1. Can it be an email?



It’s important to ask this question BEFORE you send out your meeting invite. Are you calling this meeting out of habit, or could you get the answers you need with a quick email to the right people? Related: Could that email have been a phone call? 

2. Agendas remain the most important piece of a successful meeting

No agenda? No meeting. Whether you’re meeting online or in person, if people don’t know what they’re showing up for, you’re gonna lose a lot of time bringing people up to speed when you could instead be cruising through the work that’s brought you together. A simple Google search will turn up a lot of great ideas for helpful agenda templates, but we’ve found the simpler the better: “Here’s why we’re meeting. We need to leave this meeting having decided [this]. To do that, we’ll do [this] and [this] and [this.]. Then we’ll all leave and do [this].”

3. Put your tech link in the calendar invite

This is an easy one, but it’s often ignored: make sure you put all relevant technology links in the invite itself. An invite with a “Zoom link forthcoming” just creates more work for everyone. Speaking of Zoom…

4. Zoom is your safest bet

While we’re not necessarily endorsing Zoom as the best platform for digital meetings, it is one of the most popular out there and to that end, we’ve found the fewest complications overall when using it.

5. Pass the mic

Another easy one: when you’re done talking, literally address the person you’d like to respond to by name. This keeps people from accidentally talking over each other (something we’ve seen home internet connections play a hand in) and helps focus everybody’s attention on the right “screen.” 

6. Offer pre-meeting work

The more work that can be done beforehand, the better. When setting your agenda (see #2), point out steps people can take in advance to make the meeting itself more efficient. You’ll be surprised at what the promise of a quicker meeting will inspire. 

6. Welcome the kids/pets

Let’s face it, the “comfort” of working from home is in direct tension with the challenge of kids and pets and other things you wouldn’t otherwise bring to the office with you. So here’s our advice: expect some chaos. Instead of rolling your eyes when somebody’s dog starts barking at the letter carrier, accept that we’re not going to have each other’s “full attention” all the time and just roll with it. Leverage the mute button and look for ways to mitigate some of the more obvious distractions. Perhaps there’s a better time for your usual weekly meeting. Maybe two 15 minute meetings make more sense than one half-hour session. 

7. Create to-do’s “live”

Taking note of action items “publically” can help ensure everybody understands the implications of decisions you’re making right away. When meeting in person, we’ll often note our to-do’s on a big whiteboard while we’re in the meeting, but we’ve seen the practice work virtually when our notetaker shares their screen during the meeting itself or as part of the wrap-up. 

8. Not talking? Take notes.

It’s hard to take notes and look engaged because our web cameras take away all other body language that otherwise shows we’re paying attention—when we’re not looking directly at the camera, we look very distracted. To combat this, our team has started taking notes for each other so that we can maintain eye-contact with whoever is answering the question we’ve just asked. 

9. Hold more time AND end early.

Related to #6, we’re making the best of a bad situation with these virtual meetings. To that end, schedule your meetings for about 25% longer than you’d expect to meet when gathering in person. Then surprise everybody by ending early on account of employing tips 1-8 ;)