The better-remote-meetings checklist

Scheduling a meeting? Wait! Before you do, make sure it’s a meeting that people will be happy to attend. 

Here’s a quick-reference checklist to make sure you get the most out of your meetings. You might find that you don’t even need that meeting.

Questions to ask before scheduling a meeting:

⬜ Is this really necessary? 

• Could it be done through a doc, Slack, or email instead?

⬜ Who should be involved? 

• If in doubt, follow the 10% rule: attendance means participation.

• Don’t let busy calendars postpone important decisions. 

⬜ How long should it be? 

• Default to 30 min. If you need longer, try 45 min before jumping straight to an hour.

⬜ Are you giving a presentation longer than 5 minutes? 

• If so, record it with an async video tool, like Loom, and use the meeting time for discussing rather than watching.

⭐ TIP: Be cautious about brainstorming sessions. Often they fail because they’re too long or people wait until ‘creativity strikes.’ If brainstorming is necessary, keep it focused and timeboxed.

Before the meeting:

⬜ Make sure you’ve included the Zoom, Meet, or Teams link in the invite

⬜ Prepare your attendees:

• Share an agenda

• Make the objective clear. How will you know if the meeting has been successful?

• Let people know what you expect from them

⬜ Designate a notetaker (if you need to record the meeting minutes) 

⬜ Nudge people to read/watch pre-meeting notes (especially when this material forms the basis for the meeting discussion)

During the meeting:

⬜ Repeat the goal of the meeting upfront

⬜ Be respectful and create a psychologically safe space

⬜ Avoid decision by committee

• Gather input from multiple people, but productive meetings need a single decision-maker.

⬜ End the meeting once the objective is reached. Don’t fill the extra time—give it back to people (they’ll thank you for this). 

⭐ TIP: Stay on topic. If someone starts to stray from the meeting objective, try this: “That’s an interesting point. Let’s save it for a follow-up discussion.”

After the meeting:

⬜ Share the notes or recording from the meeting

⬜ Summarize the decision made or when it will be made

⬜ Let participants know the next steps

You don’t need to thank us for this. But we bet your meeting participants will thank you.