New research reveals a lack of focus in many meetings that affects results

UK office workers think about what’s for dinner that evening (38%), plans for the weekend (37%) and even which colleagues they fancy (13%) when they should be concentrating in meetings, according to new research from meeting governance technology firm eShare out today.

Other distracting topics include shopping (28%), football (14%) and stressing about work they could be doing instead of attending the meeting (31%). 22% of respondents even admitted to just staring aimlessly into space.

This lack of focus could in part be attributed to a lack of direction at the outset of the meeting – more than half of respondents in the research said they often attend a meeting with no agenda and that outcomes suffer as a result. Furthermore, around two-thirds of respondents said that they felt meetings were just social chit-chat in a work setting.