Using Laptops or Smartphones in Meetings

Using smartphones — or worse, laptops — during in-person meetings diminishes productivity, is disrespectful to others and decreases your brainpower. Yes, scientific evidence indicates that multitasking makes people less intelligent.¹

When you are  doing something unrelated on your phone or laptop in inappropriate situations (e.g. during business meetings), you lose out because you become oblivious to the environment, people, and subtleties around you.

However, there are a few situations where it makes good sense to use a laptop or smartphone during in-person meetings.

• When you are the designated note-taker for this meeting.
  • Taking notes on a computer or smartphone saves time, and is more accurate than taking paper notes and digitizing them later.
  • Notes on paper can’t be searched easily, pile up as clutter and are less environmentally friendly.
  • It is more secure than taking notes on paper that can be forgotten and read by others who should not have access to the information.
  • Meeting notes and action items can be automatically saved in real time and shared quickly after the meeting.
  • There should be only one person taking notes during a meeting. If it is a negotiation between two opposing sides, then there should be no more than one note-taker per side.
• When you need to quickly look something up that is relevant to the discussion and is either necessary or helpful to the meeting in progress.
• Entering action items that come up during the meeting into your to-do-list so that you can focus on the meeting. This is useful for people who use the GTD system with a tool like OmniFocus.
• Quickly and discreetly asking a question, or sharing an opinion or information over instant message without disturbing others in the meeting.
• The distractions on the device could be managed if the user is disciplined and remains focussed on the meeting, perhaps even using the laptop to participate more actively in the meeting. After all, even a person using pen and paper can be distracted doodling or daydreaming.
• This is the digital age.

Tip: When you bring a laptop to a group meeting or one-on-one meeting, each time respectfully explain to the others beforehand that you will use the laptop for taking notes and recording action items in your to do list only. Inform them that you will be focusing attention on the discussion and that the laptop is simply your digital notepad.

There are also many reasons against using laptops or smartphones during meetings:

• It comes across as disrespectful to some other meeting attendees, especially those with traditional styles of working.
• The laptop screen creates a “wall” between you and the people sitting across you.
• The laptop does make it easy to get distracted into reading your email or other online activities. (A tablet like the iPad that lies flat on the table like a writing pad does not have this problem.)

Tip: At the start of your meeting, announce that if anyone needs to use their phone or laptop, they should step out of the room, use their device outside and return when done. This way, attendees have the freedom and won’t feel constrained.

In most situations, the drawbacks of using a laptop or smartphone during an in-person meeting far outweigh the benefits.

Tip: Provide a mobile phone charging area in your meeting rooms to encourage attendees to put away their mobile phones and participate.

What do you think? Here is link to a related discussion about using laptops, smartphones and other communications devices in meetings.

(Updated: 2014 July 26)

1. The High Cost of Multitasking: http://blog.fuze.com/the-high-cost-of-multitasking-infographic/  [↩]