How do you make your meetings productive & efficient?

I do two things: 1. Make a task list and add end dates (though I'm rarely able to meet the deadlines). 2. If the screen is shared in virtual meetings, then I minimize the audience window to only speaker view so that I don't get distracted by what others are doing.

Definitely pre-organize your tasks and focus on things that will actually move stuff along, not the extra stuff,, you also should have a person that makes sure everyone is on topic...

For meetings with a smaller team - send the relevant information beforehand so that everyone has thought through and are ready to start solving - if there is an open-ended discussion then time box it. Regardless timebox discussions - before inviting someone, really thing if they are needed in the meeting.

Hi! I think really preparing an agenda and the main meeting objective beforehand as well as setting the tasks to accomplish the objective will be helpful. Sending the agenda with enough time for all the attendees to prepare for the meeting helps move things along way easier too.

I find making detailed structure of the meeting not efficient long-term, maybe it makes sense for meetings that are very important. For everyday operations focusing on the end goal, next steps and keeping it short is what works the best in my experience.

I always want to include an agenda in the meeting invites I send. If I get invited to a meeting without any agenda in the event, I often ask for one from the organizer before the meeting. Otherwise the start of meetings ends up being discussion on what the outcome of the meeting should be or worse there will be no clear outcome.