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<p>Let's face it: The way we work has evolved, but our approach to meetings hasn't. The recent shift to remote and hybrid work models offered businesses a chance to rethink how we connect, communicate, and get things done. But lots of orgs are still struggling to adapt how they work, instead falling back on old habits, including an over-reliance on meetings.</p><p>With huge companies like Shopify purging all meetings from calendars earlier this year, it's clear there's growing awareness of the problem and an appetite for change. Craft recently conducted a comprehensive study, asking 2000 hybrid workers in the US about their meeting schedules as well as how meetings make them feel — and the insights are eye-opening.</p><p>Here’s a glimpse of what we've discovered and some actionable tips to help you combat meeting fatigue without sacrificing productivity or teamwork.</p><h2>The stark reality of today's work meetings</h2><ol><li><strong>An overwhelming meeting culture:</strong> A significant 59% of workers believe they could spend less time in meetings. An average worker clocks in about four hours of meetings every week, and this jumps even higher for managers. This shows an overarching feeling of inefficiency, suggesting that the actual time spent in meetings might not always translate into productivity.</li><li><strong>The ROI conundrum:</strong> A mere 25% of employees consistently feel prepared for meetings. Unsurprisingly, 35% felt their last meetings were unproductive. Unprepared participants lead to meetings that don't provide value, wasting precious time and resources.</li><li><strong>The anxiety trigger:</strong> A massive 80% of workers report feeling anxious about attending work meetings. Beyond just productivity, excessive or unproductive meetings can negatively impact the mental well-being of employees, which can have negative effects on your team and your business.</li><li><strong>The call for async communication:</strong> About 72% of employees believe that recent meetings could have been replaced with written communications. Employees are recognizing that not every update requires a face-to-face meeting, emphasizing the potential efficiency of asynchronous communication.</li><li><strong>The siloed team phenomenon: </strong>Even though 70% of workers understand the value of staying updated on their colleagues' work, almost two-thirds feel it's challenging to do so. This suggests a disconnect between departments or teams, leading to reduced efficiency and collaboration.</li></ol><h2>The async advantage</h2><p>One key takeaway from our study is the importance of embracing asynchronous (async) communication. This form of communication offers flexibility, creates visibility without overwhelming team members, and can help break down information silos within an organization. But how exactly do you transition from a culture of back-to-back meetings to one that leverages async methods effectively?</p><ol><li><strong>Embrace asynchronous communication:</strong> Implementing written, async communication can empower teams, offer flexibility, boost efficiency, and promote transparency.</li><li><strong>Make cultural shifts: </strong>Breaking free from a meeting-first mindset requires a cultural transformation. This means promoting asynchronous communication benefits, fostering intentionality, and seeking employee feedback.</li><li><strong>Tool up: </strong>Investing in the right collaboration tools that support asynchronous communication is vital. Choose user-friendly tools, provide training, and establish a feedback loop to ensure ongoing adaptability.</li><li><strong>Reframe meetings:</strong> It's not about eliminating meetings completely but making them more intentional and effective. Adopt a combination of async communication and focused meetings to nurture connections and drive innovation.</li><li><strong>Enhance meeting quality: </strong>Before scheduling a meeting, evaluate its necessity. Set clear agendas, encourage preparation, collect feedback, and when possible, meet face-to-face to avoid the pitfalls of video conferencing.</li></ol><h2>Your guide to making meetings matter</h2><p>How can you balance your approach to meetings and async communication? Our report lays out strategies that can help your meetings be more intentional and productive, suggesting a balance between old-school, in-person sessions and modern, digital tooling. Want to dive into the full findings and get actionable recommendations tailored to your team's unique challenges?</p><h3 style="text-align:center;">➡️ <a href="https://www.craft.do/resources/download/meetings-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Download the full report</a></h3>

Discover the surprising truths about today's work meetings from Craft's comprehensive study on 2000 hybrid workers. And download the full report to learn actionable strategies to combat meeting fatigue and boost productivity with the right balance of async communication and intentional meetings.

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New Craft research finds that meeting-first culture is letting hybrid workers down

<p>There are thousands (if not millions) of pieces of advice on the internet about being more productive. We all know that we want to get the most out of each day, excel in our work, and find enough balance to enjoy our down-time, but with so much advice out there it's easy to fall into the trap of "learning to be productive" and never actually doing the important work necessary to actually make an impact.</p><p>This week, we chatted with some of the Craft team and community to discover what <a href="https://www.craft.do/templates/category/productivity">productivity</a> advice has made the biggest impact on their work. With combined experiences working at Skyscanner, 1Password, award-winning agencies, and Craft, we wanted to see what productivity habits/routines have fueled high-performing teams.</p><h2>Productive Procrastination</h2><p>Daniel Duke, Craft’s Head of Content, likes to use a technique that he calls Productive Procrastination.</p><p>"If I have a list of tasks that I need to achieve in a given day or week, and I'm struggling to focus on one, I give myself permission to move on to another productive task. That way, I work through everything without feeling like I'm working against myself."</p><p>Daniel also uses this same philosophy by combining deep work and smaller administrative tasks. He says “You can 'take a break' from the deep work by picking up some smaller, bite-size chunks of work. This has the added benefit of the extra dopamine hit of checking things off your task list even when taking a break from the big stuff.”</p><h2>Know your work modes</h2><p>Similar advice came from Dave Meier, founder of an award-winning web agency, and a member of the <a href="https://community.craft.do/home">Craft community</a>. He has built a framework of his own which breaks down work into 4 modes: Park, Off-road, Sports, and Eco:</p><p>Park: Where you can reset your mental state and recharge. In this mode, you can do tasks that help you relax such as walking the dog, exercising, watching a movie, or spending time with family.</p><p>Off-road: This mode is where you give yourself permission to explore without having to worry about deliverables and deadlines. If we're always focused on deliverables, we never give ourselves the space to try new things, make mistakes, or innovate.</p><p>Sports: Here you make the most of your existing skills and knowledge and put them towards clear, tangible outcomes. It's high-focused, high-energy, uninterrupted work. Due to its intensity, it should only be done in 30-60 minute sessions and you should aim for 2-4 of these per day.</p><p>Eco: Keeping the car metaphor, eco tasks are those that can be performed on cruise control. That is: things that don't require high cognitive effort, those where you can even deal with interruptions without losing your rhythm.</p><p>Dave’s <a href="https://notes.davemeier.me/6iclFB2WzRLDvm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Focus Drivers Framework</a> is a model that lets you plan your day more realistically, taking into account how important your natural energy levels.</p><p><a href="https://youtu.be/3D3ZxKRkQp8?si=gZs8OIfqUzdqDi2v">Check out this webinar Dave hosted last year about his Focus Drivers Framework.</a></p><figure class="image"><img src="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/f0bb8da9d16cfeed41185cc9bb462c21.png" alt="Focus Drivers Framework displayed in Craft" srcset="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/dbb6a5fa3ba00f7a7925677838180bd6.png 187w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/8e2574801e052719bf93fde523390a02.png 500w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/f2cdb8dfe24b4d2bc27008dd8a44e235.png 750w," sizes="100vw"><figcaption>Dave's <a href="https://notes.davemeier.me/6iclFB2WzRLDvm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Focus Driver's Framework</a> lets you organize your work-day in a way that's optimized for your energy levels</figcaption></figure><h2><br>It's never perfect - just start.</h2><p>Dave Pier, Head of Product at Craft, told us that his biggest productivity tip is simply to get started! He said: "Starting is always the hardest part and often becomes the main obstacle stopping us from making progress at all. So it's vital to simply get started even if it's not perfect right away." Dave gives the example of creating an important document such as a client proposal or pitch document: “Don't second guess what needs to be in the document, just start writing. It's only through action alone that you'll be able to uncover what you didn't know you didn't know.”</p><h2>Productive habits lead to productive days</h2><p>Volodymyr from the Craft community uses Craft to track his most important daily habits which he does morning and evening. He says "I take some time each evening to plan the following day; this means that when I wake up I don't need to think about what to do next. For me, fewer decisions equals more energy."</p><p>He's built three different templates that he uses depending on the day and uses the checklist to ensure his consistent with daily habits and to monitor any activities he's given less attention to.</p><p>Keep track of your own productive habits with his <a href="https://www.craft.do/templates/habit-tracker" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Habit Tracker template</a>.&nbsp;</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/fa25cbb7e733db575b83e05cce64a2fd.png" alt="Daily Habits Template created in Craft" srcset="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/983c541b7315d732b5a6e5aa82e26c7e.png 245w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/5b7a27d77b60b17f19bd265dcc207c06.png 500w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/4874fd1087befe386ad1bab9e5c34149.png 750w," sizes="100vw"><figcaption>Volodymyr tracks his daily habits with a <a href="https://www.craft.do/templates/habit-tracker" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">habit tracker buit with Craft.&nbsp;</a></figcaption></figure><h2>Other productive habits</h2><p>Abner Cruz, from our customer support team, told us that the Pomodoro Technique has had a big impact on his workday by giving him periods of focus followed by deliberate, scheduled breaks. “For me, it never really clicked until I started using the Forest app; the gamification element helped me to make the Pomorodo technique a habit.”</p><p>Discover how a community member uses Craft to share <a href="https://www.craft.do/blog/6-amazing-use-cases-of-craft">Pomodoro playlists with the world.</a></p><p>Tom Norman, responsible for community and content at Craft, recently started taking a 15-minute walk first thing in the morning. This little burst of exercise first thing in the morning gets the blood flowing, helps you wake naturally, and gets you outside first thing in the morning.</p>

Discover 6 productivity tips and habits used by members of top-performing teams at Skyscanner, 1Password and Craft.

Wall in a coffee shop that reads "Punch today in the face"

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How to be more productive: Tips from the Craft team and community

<p>Our latest YouTube video looks at the fictional life of one engineering team as they take an idea from a hackathon and bring it to life, all while navigating the everyday problems that teams have to face.</p><p>Check it out below 👇</p><figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://youtu.be/IQ6UBkkLlpM"><div style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.2493%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IQ6UBkkLlpM" style="position: absolute; width: 100%; height: 100%; top: 0; left: 0;" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div></div></figure><p>Inspired by this video, we wanted to share in more detail some of the ways Craft can supercharge your product &amp; engineering teams:</p><h2>How Craft empowers product and engineering teams</h2><h3>1. Collaborate on ideas; from concept to completion</h3><p>Like a seed needs water, light, and nutrients in order to grow, ideas need energy, time and effort to come to life. Craft enables your team to cultivate ideas together, nurturing them from concept to completion.</p><p>Whether you’re fleshing out ideas in a document, gathering feedback from a colleague, or conducting an <a href="https://www.craft.do/templates/post-mortem">incident post-mortem</a>, Craft lets you do this together in a quick, sleek document editor with real-time collaboration.</p><h3>2. Effortless alignment</h3><p>Keeping everyone in the loop is essential for a project’s success. With Craft, teams can provide structured <a href="https://www.craft.do/lp/daily-notes">daily updates</a> that are accessible to anyone in the company. This ensures that all stakeholders, regardless of their department or location, are informed about the progress of the project. Just as importantly, these structured updates provide an opportunity to reflect and debrief each day so you can pick up the next morning where you left off.</p><p><strong>Get aligned with your team. Browse our </strong><a href="https://www.craft.do/templates/category/engineering" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>engineering templates</strong></a></p><h3>3. AI when you need it</h3><p>Our <a href="https://www.craft.do/blog/craft-ai-assistant">AI Assistant</a> is there to take the strain out of the workday. Use the power of AI to summarize documentation, generate ideas, create outlines, and more. We've also integrated AI into the Craft experience - meaning Craft intelligently, yet subtly, offers you what you need, when you need it.</p><h3>4. Your best work. Anywhere.</h3><p>Ideas strike at random and, let’s face it, sometimes leave just as quickly! Craft works on multiple platforms meaning you can capture an idea on your iPhone when it strikes and refine the idea in the office from your computer. No matter if you’re on Mac, iOS, Windows, or the web, Craft lets you do your best work, wherever you are.</p><h3>5. Brace for impact</h3><p>Create and share stunning documents in just a few clicks. Craft’s intuitive design makes it quick and easy to create documents that make an impact. Plus, with <a href="https://www.craft.do/templates">hundreds of templates</a> to choose from, you’ll never be short of inspiration.</p><p>Whether you’re creating documentation or <a href="https://www.craft.do/templates/category/agendas">meeting agendas</a>; <a href="https://www.craft.do/templates/release-notes">release notes</a> or <a href="https://www.craft.do/templates/category/proposal">proposals</a>, Craft makes sure whatever you make won’t go unnoticed.</p><p><br><strong>Want to see more about using Craft as an engineering team? Starting very soon, our engineers will be sharing regular updates on the blog about how they’re building Craft and what they’re learning along the way. Stay tuned for more!</strong></p>

Empower your engineering team to work better; with the help of real-time collaboration, a powerful AI assistant, and our popular Daily Notes. 

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