Do you organize online video conferences?

Are you at meetings that go on longer than you can really physically tolerate?

This has been happening more and more.

And, though we’re getting the hang of these things, it can sometimes be difficult for leaders to ‘read the room’ the way they normally would while meeting in person.

On top of that, it takes more energy, attention and focus to stay engage at online meetings.

Here’s a simple, remarkably foolish tip to make them better.

If you’re a meeting host, drink a pint of water just as the meeting begins.

Down that sucker.

If you’re anything like me, the meeting will last around forty to forty five minutes before your bladder is about to burst.

That’s a sign to stop the meeting.

With in person meetings, people tend to have the ability to pay good attention for just under an hour. The data on online meetings is much worse than that. People tend to last 35 to 45 minutes.

So. Stop the meeting at 40 minutes.

Release the water.

And,

If you didn’t get through everything you needed to get through in the first meeting?

Start another one as soon as you get back from the toilette.

(this makes it easier for those who need to escape but feel too polite to tell you)

By making these easy time sucks much more difficult to implement, you’ll think twice before distracting people.

And when you start the second meeting?

Drink another pint of water.

Time’s a ticking. Drip. Drip Drip.

It’s like the old saying goes:

Time flies, especially when it’s a clock thrown from an airplane.