Is There A Good Time For Meetings?

With many of us working remotely, number of meetings we have to attend has increased for almost every one. As many of us are missing opportunity of discussing things over a cup of coffee, or while banging into each other in office corridors, so we end up setting meeting for most topics. However, very often we go in a meeting and find that some of the key members have not joined. This becomes frustrating not only for the person who has setup the meeting, but also for other participants,  as this means they have to wait for another meeting and more time to arrive at decisions.

Is there a way we can improve attendance in meetings so that decisions can be made faster? 

Answer is yes. A carefully setup meeting has more chances that required attendees will join.  Convenience of the the time plays a major role in acceptance and attendance of a meeting.  

Most convenient time for meetings

As a general rule, we should avoid setting up meetings too early or too late during the day. When employees start their day, first think they have on their mind is to find out if there is any urgent issue which needs attention. We generally spend some time to browse through our mails first thing in the morning.  And while doing so, we also  plan our day for example setting up some important meetings with colleagues for the day, blocking some time to resolve an issue, or prepare some slide deck etc. Setting up a meeting as the very first thing to do for your colleagues, let us say at 8:30 am or 9:00 am is not a good idea. Most employees  usually use that time to plan their day. If they believe that the topic of meeting is not an urgent one, there are high chances that they might skip the meeting. 

Similarly late evening meetings should also be avoided. Towards evening people are usually in a rush or busy in concluding activities which they planned for that day. Setting up a meeting at the end of that day is like opening up new topics for them on which they can only act next day. Also by the evening, energy of employees is not at their peak levels, so there are chances that even they attend, they might not be very attentive or participative. No one wants a monologue during a meeting. 

How about mid day? energy levels are high during the day time when sun is up.  So best time to schedule a meeting is between 10:00 am to 04:00 pm ( excluding lunch time). Majority of people take lunch between 12:00 noon till 1:30 pm, so this time should also be avoided otherwise there is a risk that participants are thinking about food while you want them to think about something else. 

In a summary best slot for meetings are

10:00 am till 12:00 noon ( 2 hours window) 

01:30 pm till 4:00 pm  ( 2.5 hours window

Most convenient days for meetings

Are there some days when probability of people joining meetings is more? 

Yes there is more probability of people joining meetings in the middle of the week, i.e. Tue, Wed and Thu. 

Many a times people will want to club their leave with a weekend, so higher numbers of leaves are taken on a Monday or a Friday.  Therefore best days to schedule a meeting is Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. 

Most convenient duration of a meeting

Researches suggest that attention span for humans in one go ranges between 20 to 30 minutes. After 20 to 30 minutes of focussed attention, humans start to think about other things. Therefore one should try to conclude meetings in 30 minutes, or a maximum 45 minutes. Any meeting more than 45 minutes are can be counter productive ( unless topic is super exciting or urgent to retain attention of participants). If you know that your topic requires more then 45 minutes, it will be a good idea to keep a break in between. 

Other things to consider 

While scheduling a meeting, we should give some time for participants to accommodate / adjust their calendars. It is advisable to schedule meeting at least one day in advance if possible, as this will give participants an opportunity to adjust their calendars to accommodate your meeting request. 

With attention to small details about timings,  we can increase probability of higher attendance in meetings. Initially it will take some extra effort to plan meetings considering most suitable time of the day and week, but eventually it becomes become a habit which will be satisfying at-least if not rewarding in long run.