A Good Sample Meeting Checklist: 5 Tips For Virtual Meetings

What are the best ways to utilize meetings? When holding meetings at home, a sample meeting checklist can be helpful. Working from home has its pros and cons, but individuals need to communicate regularly. Virtual meetings should be held to the same standards as office-based meetings.

For many people, meetings are not the best use of their time if not appropriately planned. If there’s no clear plan for taking action, it’s easy to get off-topic.

UPDATED: FEBRUARY 26, 2023

What are five things you should include in a virtual meeting?

For the remainder of this post, I will lay out a simple checklist to make virtual meetings work while you’re at home. 

1. Don’t Kickoff Calls Right At The Top Of The Hour
2. Begin Meetings On A Positive Note
3. Make Sure Everyone Participates
4. Stay Consistent With Regular Meetings
5. Wrap-Up Meetings Using The “Peak-End Rule”

Don’t kick off calls right at the top of the hour 

Sometimes when a meeting starts at the exact minute, not everyone is logged on or present for the session. It may be helpful to start on time, but you always have those latecomers popping in a couple of minutes late. 

Also, there are still going to be connectivity issues if people have problems with their internet. Slow connection or response times are a downside to having virtual meetings. 

So instead of kicking off at the top of the hour, aim to start five-ten minutes early once everybody is present.

How I go about with start times

For myself, I’m somebody who’s a stickler when starting on time. But not everybody has that kind of discipline, whether that’s at the office or at home meetings. 

Whenever I take part in webinars, I make sure to log on five-ten minutes earlier. This approach helps me make sure I don’t have any connectivity issues on my end. 

If I conducted virtual meetings or webinars, I would be kind to wait about five minutes for everybody to get online. Nothing will be perfect, but I’m reasonable enough to understand those issues.

Begin meetings on a positive note 

If you’re running the meeting, make sure to begin on a lighter, positive note. You can’t assume everybody will be in the same mood at the time. Ask a fun question, or talk about a win you accomplished within the past week. 

Starting on a positive note can serve two functions: 

1. Broadening our perspective  
2. Building social connections and features

These functions can help us develop innovative ideas and prepare us to solve challenges.

Apply the lit-match technique

As a coordinator, practice going around the virtual meeting and have each person give a quick response. It can be a funny story or a small win within the past week. 

To make it short, you can use something such as the lit-match technique. Think about not wanting to burn your fingers, so keep it quick and simple whenever possible.

Make sure everyone participates

One of the keys to productive meetings is getting full participation. Maybe not in all cases, but sessions are better when every participant engages and gets their say. 

If you’re leading the meeting, you shouldn’t have to do all the talking. Making sure to find that balance where people take turns will give coordinators less work. It can also save time if you need a break from talking as well.

• Best Tip: Use the “Peak-End” Rule in meetings

Meetings where I use to work

In a previous job I had, one of the managers implemented having everyone participate in the meetings. When I sat in one of those meetings, he made it clear that he wanted everyone to contribute to the meeting. 

He was like, “Everybody needs to contribute and say something at some point.” Not in the wrong way, but I think his goal was to challenge my coworkers and me to think creatively. It was the right way to start a good dialogue about solving severe problems.

Stay consistent with regular meetings

Like what people would do at the office, keep sessions a regular part of your work schedule; I know some people get confused if working from home means no meetings. 

If you need to communicate with coworkers and employees regularly, take advantage of the virtual meetings at home. Even if it’s for a half-hour weekly or every other week, keep on it so all teams can be on the same page.

For those accustomed to working in an office environment, it will take some time to get used to working at home. But if you can’t have your usual one-hour meetings at home, it’s ok to shorten them to a half-hour a week. Whatever works best for your team, make sure that everyone can get on the same board while staying on track.

Wrap up meetings on using the “peak-end rule”

Something I’ve never heard of until recently is a technique called the “peak-end rule.” Developed by economist Daniel Kahneman, people are more likely to remember and judge an experience by its “peak” and its end. 

You want to start a meeting positively, so you want to use the same rule for ending a session. You want your team to feel energetic and ready to move forward with their progress.

When wrapping up a virtual meeting, be sure to leave the last five-ten minutes to review any action items. Also, use that time to apply the lit-match technique. 

You can permit your team to give rapid responses. For instance, you can ask the following questions:

• What is one thing you took away from this call?

OR

• What are you most excited about going forward?

Or, you can use that moment to recognize a team member for their contributions. Either way, you always want to wrap up a virtual meeting on a positive note.

A relevant article from notimekillers.com

Read next on “Time Management Tips For Working At Home: 5 Best Practices, to learn how to manage your time better while working from home.

Final Words

One of the best parts of virtual meetings is avoiding further isolation from the people we work with. Most of us can agree that communication and accountability are needed. 

Just because you work at home doesn’t mean you can’t have meetings at all. With the technology available today, it’s more accessible to do things at home, such as virtual meetings. 

If you can conduct virtual meetings properly, it can be similar to holding meetings at the office.

Your Turn: What are your thoughts on virtual meetings?

I would like to know your thoughts about virtual meetings. Do you currently work at home?

If so, do you regularly have virtual meetings with your team? Are there any challenges that come along with it?

Feel free to share your thoughts by leaving a comment below. I looking forward to reading your responses and I will get back to you promptly.

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Eric is a content writer and the site owner of notimekillers.com. He takes great pride in helping people manage their time and grow their businesses. Eric is a firm believer in time freedom, as he believes in taking ownership of time. 

“Time is your most important asset. It can be your best friend or worst enemy. How you use your time can shape the future you desire to have.” In his leisure time, Eric loves to write and read whenever possible. He enjoys going for long walks outdoors while doing in-home workout videos every week. You can follow Eric on LinkedIn.