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Meetings: the main obstacle for developers to focus on their work

The developers of software spend, on average, a third of their work week in meetings. This is stated by the developer company of the time management tool Clockwise in a report, which also highlights that those who work in large companies spend more time in meetings and unable to concentrate on their work than those who work in smaller companies.

Clockwise’s data comes from information on 1.5 million meetings tracked by its platform between May 2021 and May 2022, which also provided data on the employment practices of some 80,000 developers from 5,000 companies. These data show that, on average, the typical software engineer spends 10.9 hours per week in meetingsand uninterrupted time you can focus on your work is 19.6 hours per week. It is called “focus time”.

In addition to these hours consumed between meetings and work, developers spend another six or so hours on activities and fragmented time. They are the obligation-free gaps between meetings that offer very little, often insufficient, time to focus on completing a task. Another study has shown that it can take, on average, 23 minutes to return to work after a break. Meetings can be classified as such, because in many cases it is the origin of the context change that causes workers to be distracted from productive work.

The Clockwise report has also pointed out the importance of “focus time” through an interview among 150 software engineering managers. 90% relate this time to productivity, and 77% believe that there is a connection between this and the company getting more income.

This is not to say that meetings are not important, but in light of the results it makes sense for managers to find balance for their teams. It is something that should be evaluated in companies to adjust their meeting culture and see which combinations work for them and which do not. Having meetings to discuss important issues is necessary but sometimes they are not well scheduled or their duration is excessive. And it must be clear that this problem does not only affect developers. It affects all kinds of employees.

Developers spend more time together the more responsibility they have. As they rise through the ranks and become team or division managers. So they spend an average of seven more hours a week in meetings. Especially because of the increase in one-on-one meetings with subordinates. However, there is not as much of a difference in time spent in meetings as developers move up the ranks and top developers.

When it comes to meetings based on company size, the larger the company, the more time developers spend together. In the largest they spend an average of 12.2 hours in meetingswhile in the smallest they stay in 9.7 hours on average. At large and medium-sized companies, developers also spend an average of 36% more time in two-person meetings than at small ones. Likewise, in these the “focus time” reaches 22.5 hours per week, compared to 16.9 per week for the large ones.

This happens because the most established companies rely on meetings to make decisions, and the larger they are, the more decisions, and therefore more meetings, are necessary. In contrast, smaller companies are more likely to adopt new ways of working, for example showing greater reliance on asynchronous communications, which do not require everyone to be involved in decision-making at the same time.

Asynchronous communication tools, as well as collaboration and productivity tools, have the potential to reduce the time spent in meetings. Of course, although technology can help reduce meetings, it may be necessary to make some other change in the company’s culture so that all its areas adapt to it.

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