That coworking space in Austin changed how I handle meetings

I used to think remote work meant just taking calls from my couch with bad WiFi. Then I crashed at a friend's spot in Austin last month and spent a day at this small coworking place called The Hive. They had these soundproof phone booths and a rule that if you're in a meeting longer than 20 minutes, you move to a designated room. I started doing that for my own team's calls back home and it cut our average meeting time from 45 minutes to under 25. Turns out having a physical boundary makes people get to the point faster. Has anyone else noticed a big difference just by changing where you take your calls?

2 comments

2 Comments

robinc661mo ago

Did you catch that study someone posted a while back about how the environment shapes how direct people are? I swear it's true. I read somewhere that when you're sitting in a comfy chair at home, your brain treats it like a casual chat, so you drag things out. But when you're in a booth or a different room, your brain goes "okay, this is work." I've seen it with my own group too. We moved one of our weekly stand-ups to a porch bench instead of the kitchen table and it shaved off ten minutes. It's wild how much a dumb little change like that can fix the bloat.

xenar141mo ago

oh man i totally thought that was overhyped until i tried it myself. setting up a "meeting corner" in my apartment with a dedicated headset and a timer literally changed everything.