How do you manage to eliminate the number of video/voice calls when working remotely?
Sergej Gorišek
7 replies
Do you have a feeling you're constantly on video/voice calls? How do you eliminate the ones that are unnecessary?
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![Brittany Salas](https://ph-avatars.imgix.net/3100395/original.png?auto=compress&codec=mozjpeg&cs=strip&auto=format&w=36&h=36&fit=crop)
Brittany Salas@brittany_salas
Call me old school but I find that people think more before calling someone than they do before sending an email. I encourage calls and am slowly trying to eliminate messaging apps.
Calendly works great for scheduling timed b2b meetings during specific windows.
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The easy answer is hitting-home what the actual meaning of a meeting is. If the goal of a meeting is not incredibly obvious and pinned-down [itinerary], of course it's going to feel like some/many [?] meetings and video/voice calls are unnecessary.
Easy mode: don't take/make meetings unless they move the needle in a meaningful way. What 'meaningful' looks like is up to the individual/organization.
Gotta' have 'meaningful' though.
If you don't have the free-reign to sort of dictate your own meeting schedule, and you just keep getting ones that don't feel 'meaningful', it may be time to talk to leadership.
- "Hello, I'm ABC from sales at XYZ, I want to discuss something, let's jump on a call!"
- report spam and move on
For work stuff, have scheduled, regular meetings. For me it's 1h call every other day.
I made a video on it recently ( ) and this simple, obvious thing seems to work the best.
I do very little meetings / calls, mostly "social" ones like getting to know a new client etc.
Decide on what should be a call and what you can do on Slack.
A one-on-one with a team-member needs to be a call, just like a pitch to a potential new client. As long as you have an agenda for the call, it will be a good investment.
Slack works great for chit-chat and quick questions. Sometimes we decide to "takte this off-line" and out of a meeting, and sometimes I jump into a heated Slack conversation and will suggest a quick huddle on a video-call. It depends!
If you're having lots of ad-hoc video calls, you might need to consider a weekly meeting to address topics that are coming up a lot. It helps people to think things through ahead of time and shortens the time spent on the topic.