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?

Replies

Pēteris Caune
Healthchecks.io
Healthchecks.io
- "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.
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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.
Fabian Maume
I use Slack as main mean of communication. I use Calendly to schedule meeting when necessary. My Calendly is setup with 5 hours lead time and 1 hour cool down between meeting.
Pieter Limburg
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.
Kira Leigh
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.
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.