- We're going to save you
hours and hours and hours of time
every single week just by watching this video.
- [Andrew] We have got so many tips
for how to have quicker Zoom calls
so your Zoom meetings can be way more productive
and you can get on with your day.
- We'll even tell you how to deal with those certain people
that just want endless, pointless Zoom meeting
after Zoom meeting with no agenda whatsoever,
and then when you get on the call,
they just won't shut up.
So yeah, we'll help you deal with them too.
- All right, Pete, no time to spare,
let's do this.
- Firstly, we're going to show you how to avoid
taking Zoom call meetings altogether,
and then show you how to have quicker Zoom calls
for the ones that are actually necessary.
Because here's the thing, guys,
bring it in, bring it in...
The quickest Zoom calls
are the calls that never happen at all.
(laughs) Oh yeah, baby!
- Tweetable.
We guarantee that at least 50%
of your meetings don't even have to happen
in the first place.
So here's how to reduce the amount
of Zoom calls that you have.
- You need to remember that having a Zoom call meeting
is incredibly time-consuming. (clock ticks)
Most meetings are inherently presumed to be an hour long,
plus even just the thought of an impeding meeting
just takes your headspace away
from what you should be doing.
It's distracting for your productivity,
you have to get dressed for it,
do your hair, get out of your pyjamas.
It can be hard to get back on track after the meeting,
it can be draining for your energy,
and if they don't go well,
then it can play on your mind
and ruin your focus for the rest of the day.
- So productivity-wise,
a simple one hour meeting may actually
take up two hours of your head space.
That is not productive.
And what's more, think about
what your hourly rate is, (coins clink)
and what this is costing you.
- It's crazy, and if you actually think about
all the meetings that you have,
you can probably figure out that most of them
aren't actually necessary.
So this is how you deal with that.
If someone asks you for a catch-up,
you need to ask yourself, is this what you want?
Do you want to do it this week?
Can it be pushed?
Can you come back to this?
Does it need to be a call or a meeting in the first place?
Or maybe it's a client,
who wants to call and discuss something?
Is it necessary?
Ask yourself, could this be handled
in a better, more efficient way?
For example, could you spend just 10 minutes,
crafting and writing up a really concise and efficient email
that gets across all the information that needs to happen?
In fact, usually it's better,
so it's all in writing in the first place.
- A great response that you absolutely need to jot down,
right now, if someone asks you for a Zoom meeting, is this.
Sure, could you please let me know
what you'd like to cover in the meeting,
and what you'd like to have clear by the end?
- When they reply, you could either turn that into a agenda,
so that when you have the meeting,
it's a lot more efficient,
or even better, just simply send them back a reply
giving them all the information that they actually need,
saving yourself from having to have that meeting
in the first place.
Remember, your time is super, super precious,
and you can, and you are allowed,
to say no to a meeting,
it is not rude.
A polite way to say no is simply to say,
my schedule is full working on project x,
can we circle back to this?
If it's important,
that person will come back to you,
and will circle back to you.
But nine times out of 10,
they don't circle back
because it probably wasn't important in the first place.
- Now we have discussed
about reducing the amount of meetings,
let's now talk about making them quicker.
And by the way,
if you're thinking of implementing any of these tips,
then please do let us know in the comments,
or drop a quick like on this video.
- Okay, so how to have quicker Zoom calls,
but not necessarily rushed Zoom calls,
that's the key.
Firstly, your meetings don't have to be
the typical one hour meeting as a standard.
And it's important to make that known to the person
before you even get on the call.
So when someone asks you when you're free,
you could say,
hey, I have 15 minutes on these available dates.
Give them some suggestions.
And I know this isn't always possible,
but it is better to get people
to try and book into your schedule,
rather than the other way round.
This way, it doesn't impact on your schedule as much.
- Another good tip is to have preset times for meetings.
For example, for us,
we typically try to fit our meetings after lunch,
between the hours of 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM.
We try to avoid meetings in the morning
because this is when we are most productive,
so we like to work on the business during these times,
and having that set slot in our calendar for meetings
makes it really easy to set new meetings up,
quickly suggest times,
and set up calendar schedulers
to moderate the amount of meetings
that we actually fit into our diary, too.
And you can use a meeting scheduler tool like Calendly
or like schedule ones to get other people
to book into these preset times.
Cool thing about using these services
is that you can also send automatic reminders.
You can set them for like a few days before,
or even like an hour before,
because there's nothing more unproductive
than someone not turning up for a meeting
that they've forgotten about.
But if you don't want to use one of these tools,
then make sure you are just using
some kind of online calendar,
like iCal or Google Cal,
and invite people to the meeting
so it goes into their calendar, too.
This also has the added benefit of,
they will get their own reminders,
and it will make sure the time zones are correct,
because we have been there.
Okay, we've got some even more tips for you here,
another thing that you can do
is have a VA manage your diary.
That's what we do,
and our awesome VA Tammy almost acts like a gatekeeper,
and keeps everything scheduled
and everyone reminded of things.
- Another handy tip is to try
to book in those meetings back-to-back.
This means there's no downtime in between,
if you've got half an hour in between a meeting,
you're not going to do anything in that time,
you're just going to play on your phone or get a drink,
so let's reduce that time.
And it gives you the ability to say at the end of the call,
or if someone's waffling on,
oh, someone else is coming into my Zoom room,
so, you know...
- Shut up. (laughs) - Wrap it up.
- It's also polite to tell the person
at the start of the call
how long you have for the meeting,
and if you have another call scheduled back-to-back,
just so they're aware from the top.
- I also just want to tell you about
two of my favourite phrases
for wrapping up the end of a meeting.
Phrase number one goes a little like this.
Okay, so in the last 10 minutes,
is there anything else that you'd like to cover?
This is just another little friendly reminder
before the final axe chop (whoosh)
that the meeting will be ending in 10 minutes' time.
And the final phrase, just to wrap things up
on the call is to say,
I'm just conscious of the time, so to sum up,
and then you basically just say like the summary,
and what actions and that you have to go,
and then, bye. (laughs)
- Politely. - Politely.
- And that's how to have quicker or no Zoom calls.
And way more productive meetings.
If you've enjoyed this video
and you are a small business owner,
then please do subscribe to this channel.
We create videos like this every single week
to help your business grow faster.
- He's been Andrew, and I- - Pete, I'm just,
I'm conscious of time, so just to sum up,
I have been Andrew and we'll see you all next week.
Bye guys. (upbeat instrumental)