Long meetings are the gripe of your workday

THERE’S one simple, everyday thing that is killing our days at work. No, it’s not that passive-aggressive colleague or even an unreasonable boss.

One thing that’s ruining your work day

SOME things are obvious workday-ruiners — the unreasonable client, the passive-aggressive colleague or the snarky boss.

You get home at the end of the work day and you just know you’ve had a crappy day — unproductive and sluggish.

But some days, there was no argument with anyone over whether they should be sneezing into their hands or their elbows (it’s elbows, by the way), and that $12 sandwich was actually perfectly edible. It should’ve been a good day. And yet, you’re still plagued with this general malaise that you can’t shake.

So what was it? What’s ruining your day at work?

According to more than half of Australians in a survey by Regus, the seemingly innocuous thing that kills productivity the most is long meetings.

A lot of meetings are essential for colleagues to gather and nut out the details of a project or to catch up with a client so you can maintain that special relationship (otherwise known as hitting them up for more money).

But meetings often descend into some unrelated anecdote and before you know it, you’ve spent 20 minutes on the best way to make perfect roux.

So, if you have to have them, how can you make meetings faster, more efficient and less of a pain?

• Ban laptops: If half the people are answering emails, how much of their undivided attention are you really getting?

• Set an agenda: Know exactly what you have to get through and stick to it. Any unrelated issue can be picked up later and in a smaller circle.

• Keep it tight to 15 minutes: Scientifically, people’s attention spans are within the 10 to 18-minute range. Think about how TED talks are under 18 minutes.

• Stand: That’s right, stand-up meetings are more efficient because people are less likely to linger over things.

• Ban mobile phones: Now that phones can do pretty much everything your computer can, leave them at your desk and you won’t be distracted by it the whole time.

• Make sure there’s a clock: Sounds glaringly simple but without a clock on the wall, how will you know when to say ‘I have another meeting’ to get out the current one?

• Keep it small: There are very few occasions when you actually need more than eight people in the room. Keep it to when you do.

• Keep presentations simple: Don’t cram 13 dot points onto one PowerPoint slide, with another 12 slides to go. Follow the rules and people may actually take in what you’re saying.

The second and third most unproductive things according to the survey were IT glitches and traffic jams, but we don’t have so much control over that, so take charge of what you can change.