Most people are no big fans of meetings. They are frustrated by sitting in a room for several hours with their daily tasks piling up and finishing time moving further and further away. We dream ourselves away to a place we could be more useful or at least have fun.

Meetings can be annoying due to different reasons. A long discourse of one individual gets boring. A subject being discussed is not interesting for all participants. The own tiredness prevents us from being attentive and concentrated. Often a lack of focus turns meetings irritating and participants impatient. Let’s enhance the quality of meetings with three simple steps.

1.Set a purpose for the meeting

Meetings should be like salt — a spice sprinkled carefully to enhance a dish, not poured recklessly over every forkfuls. Too much salt destroys a dish. Too many meetings destroy morale and motivation. A lot of meetings don’t have a clear goal. If there is no guide line and structure to the outcome of a meeting, it often gets off track. Defining the “why” of the gathering is essential to create purpose. If you don’t find a goal, maybe you haven’t gotten to the core. Or the meeting might not be needed at all. Be bold in deciding against a meeting if there’s no need for it.

Throughout all different approaches to meetings, one thing is ultimately important: having a purpose. Mostly, that purpose is surprisingly simple which makes it actually easy to aim at. Unlike most people, who go into meetings unprepared and without purpose, you can become the kind of person prepared with the skills to get more out of these meetings. Simply by being more aware of the outcome. Adding a personal purpose is even more effective to live better meetings.

 2. Donate time to mindfulness

Coming to a meeting, people bring all their thoughts from the previous endeavor. One has just returned from a challenging client meeting while the other is preoccupied with a difficult problem. The third just got a call about his child falling sick. Various mindsets are influencing the course of meetings. Therefore, no meeting is like the other as mindsets are constantly changing. It needs a lot of self-control of each person to get the best out of a meeting. However, there’s a way to bring people together and make it easy for them to leave everything behind for a moment. We all can train to be aware of our thoughts and feelings and how they influence our behavior.

Mindfulness, yoga and meditation practice teach you to be more aware of the present moment. Moreover,concentrating on your body and mind condition over breathing leads up to paying attention to your thoughts. Starting team meetings with a yoga or meditation session gives you the chance to focus on yourselves. Taking only 15 minutes to relax, moving your body, getting aware of how you are at the moment creates a community spirit. Gift those simple 15 minutes to each person hence giving them the time to focus on themselves and their personal condition. Also, you easily gain these 15 minutes back. While in the meeting, everyone will be more concentrated

3.Create an open team culture

The best team cultures give space for every individual to unfold and to add their own specific spice into the team community. There is a correlation between the self-development of each team member and the progress of the team as a whole.

In teams with an open-minded culture, where everyone can be who he is and say his opinion without being judged, one will feel more seen and accepted. You will be more thoughtful, care more and be more invested. Everyone will be more engaged as they can be comfortable and feel needed. In addition, giving team-mates the chance to speak in meetings since its crucial in enabling their active participation.

Finally,just as a large amount of working time taken on getting things done, setting up meetings should also follow the same effectiveness.