Here's an article about working on your laptop during meetings. Since my team is remote, we admittedly spend time during meetings on the old laptop. You know, when the meeting takes a turn toward something not particularly relevant to you. It's hard not to do that when the meeting takes place in-person.

During meetings where I am presenting something, I am distracted by anyone on their laptop; I admit it. It's kind of hard not to take it personally. At the same time, there are only so many hours in a day and I have always had issues with being required to attend meetings that don't have any immediate consequences for myself or my team. I generally try to opt-out of those meetings as much as possible. Sometimes I'll come to the meeting without the laptop so I am not tempted (as if anything is SO important that it needs immediate attention). I think we would all feel a little more zen about this whole thing if we weren't being forced to decide what work gets done and what work doesn't get done. But we don't live in a world where you come to a finishing point at the end of the day with a clean desk. Remember when it was like that? Yeah, me neither.

I'm trying to force myself to be more present in meetings (I swear I just heard something on TV about being "present"...sounds like a good idea). If that means building in a little unproductive meeting time, then I guess that is what it means. Besides, I can always go to my happy place in my head if it gets really bad.

Heather Hamilton
Staffing Manager
Strategic Talent Acquisition, Community and Research
Microsoft Corporation