Young people at an efficient and productive business meeting

15 Ways to Make Meetings More Efficient

One of the most common complaints in the business world is about being forced to attend unnecessary meetings. Nobody wants to sit through an in-person meeting or video conference to hear things that could have instead been summed up in an email message. To help business leaders run more purposeful meetings, we asked 15 members of Young Entrepreneur Council to share their best tips for how to make meetings more efficient and useful.

No one enjoys sitting through a meeting that could have been summed up in an email, so what's one tip you have for making meetings more purposeful and efficient?

1. Follow the Level 10 Meeting structure

The Level 10 Meeting has been game-changing for our organization. With the L10 Meeting structure, you have a set agenda which covers a review of numbers, "big rocks," and other specific issues. Some issues are discussed and resolved during the meeting itself; for other issues, a separate meeting is set, with a clear agenda and game plan that helps ensure any separate meetings are efficient and successful. —Saloni Doshi, EcoEnclose

2. To make meetings more efficient, set a clear agenda

We set an agenda to ensure we are on task. It follows this order: ask questions, review projects, ask more questions, and ask a short question to the team as a "get to know you." Typically these meetings last 30 to 45 minutes. —Jean Ginzburg, JeanGinzburg.com

3. Adopt the PALO method

I was taught to follow the PALO method for effective meetings. All meetings should have the following in the meeting invite: Purpose, Agenda, Logistics, and Outcomes. Additionally, it helps to schedule a regular cadence of quick check-in meetings on projects so you can address things before it spills over to the "we need a two-hour meeting about this" territory. —Tony Scherba, Yeti

4. Stop holding “status” meetings

Status meetings are worthless and should be canceled. That frees up space for meetings where decisions can be made. If you find yourself in a meeting and aren't part of the discussion, or find there aren't any decisions being made, my advice would be to promptly exit that meeting. Guard your time aggressively. —David Boehl, TravelSite.io

5. Default to 10- or 20-minute meetings

Change your default meeting settings. Do we really need 30-minute or hour-long meetings, or can your agenda be accomplished in a shorter time? As social beings, we'll always find a way to fill the time, but if the meetings are set to shorter blocks, we'll also find a way to accomplish what needs to get done. Change your calendar defaults to 10- or 20-minute meetings to force a concise agenda. —Ryan Stoner, Dendro

6. Streamline the meeting flow

The best way to make your meetings more productive is to create an easy-to-follow document. If multiple people speak during the meeting, everyone should know when it's their turn to talk and what needs to be said. If you streamline the flow of the meeting, you can save time and effort. —John Brackett, Smash Balloon LLC

7. Allow participants to add to the agenda

Create an agenda before the meeting and share with all corresponding attendees. If anyone has anything further they would like to add or discuss, they can edit the agenda. This way, the meeting is as productive and efficient as possible. —Jordan Edelson, Appetizer Mobile LLC

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8. To make meetings more efficient, choose invitees carefully

Be selective when choosing who you invite to your meetings. The more people means the more opinions and the more time it will take. If you want to have an open discussion or brainstorming session, you can schedule several meetings with different departments or you can meet only with team leaders who can disseminate information to their teams. —Reuben Yonatan, SaasList

9. Decide if it can be shared in a document

Any kind of information that's shared regularly, like KPIs, should be put into a document. There's no need to just share status updates and KPIs that are being met consistently. You can make meetings effective by creating an agenda and discussing actual problems and unusual situations. We use an L10 agenda for our meetings and that keeps our meetings to just 10 minutes. —Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner

10. Plan to discuss specific items

To make meetings more purposeful, they should only be held to discuss specific things. If you're having meetings every week that turn into gossiping sessions or a lot of personal life talk, then it's likely you don't need them. If meetings go this way most of the time, get rid of them. —Jared Atchison, WPForms

11. Make meetings more efficient by separating meetings by team

Make sure that you're holding meetings with people who actually need to be there. It's okay to ask everyone in the company to attend meetings that impact the company and when the content discussed is general; it's not okay to ask developers to sit through a marketing session when they could be working. Have meetings for different teams and focus on relevant topics for each team. —Blair Williams, MemberPress

12. Let everyone speak

No meeting is wasted if everyone gets to talk. Count the bonding time, not just the meeting minutes. Have everyone discuss, even for a minute or less. Email is just a bland conversation; a meeting should be a fiery and empowering conversation that will bond everyone on the team—that should be the main purpose. —Daisy Jing, Banish

13. Make meeting more efficient by preparing ahead of time

You can save a lot of time in your meetings with a little bit of preparation beforehand. Don't assume you have to wait until the meeting to start asking questions or get in touch with people. Ideally, meetings should only involve time-sensitive situations, like casting votes for a business decision or introducing your team to a new client, so get everything else taken care of first. —Bryce Welker, CPA Exam Guy

14. Summarize quick points in an after-meeting email

Always have an agenda and ensure everyone has the chance to add points to it before the meeting begins. Consider which points could simply be kept to an email. Save those points and add them to the summary email you send out after the meeting. During the meeting itself, to keep things brief, try to stick to three to five minutes per point. —Emily Stallings, Casely, Inc.

15. End the meeting early if it's over

Don’t force the clock to hold you in the room. I have been in many meetings booked for an hour but that only needed to last 15 minutes. Instead of finding random topics to fill the time or deciding to drag out the few topics at hand, cut things short. Give people their time back and wrap up whenever the meeting objectives have been accomplished, regardless of what the clock reads. —Matthew Podolsky, Florida Law Advisers, P.A.

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