The Meeting Hangover: It’s a Real Thing

I hear from clients daily about meeting overwhelm in their workplaces. The back-to-back meetings to discuss the work leaves precious little time to do the work.

Meeting Hangover

This new trending term “meeting hangover” describes the long-lasting mental fatigue and fuzziness that often follows the debilitating perpetual meeting cycle. If you must attend continuous meetings throughout your workday without time to process and reflect, you are likely not to absorb or remember what happened in all the meetings, which defeats the purpose of meeting in the first place.

Negative Consequences

Meeting hangovers happen due to cognitive exhaustion. Perhaps you can relate to perpetual meetings in a single day and trying to absorb the information, manage the social dynamics, and switch between topics, colleagues, and projects. This can lead to fatigue, irritability, and the inability to focus or retain information.

Studies are now indicating that meeting mania leaves participants with impaired engagement and productivity. This was exacerbated by the pandemic and seems to be lingering creating unhealthy and unsustainable work practices.

Do You Really Need to Meet?

Unfortunately, some colleagues perpetuate meetings because they like to hear their own voice, and their ego gets in the way of productivity. It’s time to ask, do we really need to meet? Can the objective be accomplished over email, Teams, Slack, or a quick call?

If you really need to meet, share an agenda in advance and consider the duration and location of your meeting. Try a 20-minute meeting, or a stand-up, or walking meeting. Work expands or contracts to fit the time you have. You can be very efficient with a short meeting if you stick to a plan.

Honor The White Space

Don’t underestimate the power of white space on your calendar to pause, reflect, process and think. This focus time empowers you to do the work with energy, clarity and a sense of calm, so your brain could do great work.

Be bold and consider how you can reduce the number of meetings, carve out no-meeting times, or days to prioritize space to get the work done.

The negative impact of a meeting hangover is clear. It’s time to preserve the energy, creativity and productivity of your workforce, so people can honor their work and their wellbeing.