Below email, I would say meetings are the next most-abused construct in our remote working environments. This morning, I started my day facing nine meetings across two calendars with two double-bookings. By the way, only two of the meetings had an agenda.

Some of the meetings ended up canceled, either one minute before, or a couple of minutes after starting. In both cases, it was because there were key stakeholders unavailable for the meeting.

As a consultant, I have to go with the flow. When I was a permanent employee, I was more rigorous in my expectations for meetings. If I received a meeting invite without an agenda, I would decline with prejudice. 

The problem is that it’s way too easy to schedule a meeting. Just go to Outlook, set the date/time, add some people, type one sentence, and poof, there’s a meeting. It’s much harder to plan what the meeting will be about, create an agenda, and do the work that will ensure the meeting will be effective.

On the bright side, I figured out a setting that prevents my bluetooth headphones from disconnecting when I receive a call. On iPhone Settings–>Accessibility–>Touch–> Call Audio Routing. Set to bluetooth.

I had to add this video someone sent me about conference calls in real life. Hilarious! https://youtu.be/DYu_bGbZiiQ