While you may not have a say in your organization’s RTO plans, you do have agency in how you work as teams and individuals. Think of it as another “reset” moment. 

The first came just a few short years ago, when most of us knowledge workers traded cubicles for closets rigged up as home offices, water cooler chats for Slack messages, and tedious commutes for a few quick steps down the hall to our desk. Atlassian embraced this change from day one and has steadfastly championed flexible work, even after offices could open again. Every day, employees get to choose where they work, be it the office, home, or a coffee shop. We firmly believe in this approach.

Nonetheless, companies like Amazon and U.S. federal agencies are mandating a return to office (RTO), leaving millions of workers to navigate yet another transition. Whether you welcome the challenge or not, it’s an opportunity to reset how you work – a chance to bring practices designed for distributed teamwork back to your newly mandated office environment.

Because here’s the thing: in 2025, nearly all work happens on the internet. You’ll still use Slack with your co-located teammates. You’ll still create Confluence pages, Google Sheets, and Jira boards. Not because you’re physically separated, but because that’s simply how work happens now. That means many of the teamwork practices optimized for digital-first work will help you thrive in the office. 

Digital-first practices that tackle the real problem with work

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Mandating office attendance is a major boon for face-time, no doubt. But breathing the same air has never been the key to high performance. Nor is physical separation itself the root problem. (Consider the fact that mid- and large-sized companies have distributed their workforce across multiple cities since approximately the dawn of time.) 

The real problem is what Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky calls “fake work.” These are activities that don’t add value even though they feel like work. Think about meetings that could’ve been an email. Or endless review → revision → approval cycles. Case in point: 55% of knowledge workers say merely tracking down the information they need is a heavy lift, despite knowing a lot of people in their organization. 

Fake work wears you down and eats up your time. And the kicker is that fake work doesn’t care where you work. It was actually invented in the office and feels very much at home there. 

So how do you get rid of fake work, regardless of where you’re working? According to Annie Dean, who oversees Atlassian’s distributed work program Team Anywhere, “Rigorously adopted working norms that increase coordination and improve communication are what fix fake work.“ 

Let’s take a look at three such practices that became an indispensable part of distributed work during pandemic lockdowns, and happen to be equally beneficial to today’s co-located teams.

1. Go on record

In 2020, writing quickly supplanted speaking as the default form of communication. Desk drive-bys became chat messages. Brainstorming sessions moved from the conference room to virtual whiteboards. Consequently, information became more easily discoverable (and sharable!). Hang onto that digital-first mentality as you re-enter the office. It might seem silly to Slack the person sitting two desks over, but creating digital records of your decisions, progress, and potential risks helps keep everyone on the same page. 

Putting ideas down in writing also forces you to clarify your thinking, especially when it comes to goal setting and change management. People will want to understand your rationale, and they’ll want to refer back to a source of truth at some point to make sure they’re moving in the right direction. 

Plus, with AI now deployed across enterprise systems, artifacts like meeting transcripts, project plans, and company policies are even more valuable. They provide rich, structured data to analyze and put to use making you more effective. AI can’t index your watercooler conversation, but it can scan your files and start drafting that report due next Tuesday. In fact, Atlassian’s research found that strategic AI users get double the ROI on their efforts and save nearly two hours a day. Take that, fake work.

2. Share information async, discuss it in real time

Synchronous meeting time is precious when teammates are distributed across time zones because finding a time during everyone’s working hours can be so challenging. Co-located teams should still treat that time as precious. Status updates, routine information-sharing, and feedback on work in progress is just as effective using asynchronous channels. Moving them to chat, email, and short-form videos like Loom frees up time for more meaningful synchronous collaboration. 

Meetings should be reserved for discussing possible solutions and driving toward a decision. To make them as efficient and effective as possible, we recommend trying page-led meetings: 

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1. Create a short document summarizing the context, goals for the meeting, and points to discuss. 
2. Start the meeting by giving everyone about five minutes to digest and comment on the page.
3. Dive in for a productive discussion. 

Once you get the hang of it, creating that page typically takes less than a half hour and allows everyone in the group to hit the ground running with ideas already churning. In an internal experiment, Atlassian found that 85% of page-led meetings met their goals, compared to just 69% of the control group.

And if you find yourself in meetings where you’re talking about project work, but not actually moving it forward, try what we call “Get Sh!t Done” sessions. These are dedicated one- to two-hour blocks for sharing work in progress, getting immediate feedback, and solving problems on the spot. You might meet for 10 minutes to set the context, then work independently for 30 minutes, then regroup to check in and resolve blockers. Or, set it up study hall-style where everyone is working heads-down but also free to ask for help or share ideas spontaneously. 

3. Take control of your calendar

For 54% of knowledge workers, meetings dictate each day’s schedule and “real work” has to take a back seat. It’s time to flip the script. 

First, block off focus time and guard it jealously. On my own calendar, no fewer than two hours each day are cordoned off for deep work. They’re typically in the mornings (I’m a few time zones ahead of most of my colleagues) which leaves a solid majority of my day open for collaborative work. Some people even schedule short blocks for checking and responding to messages so they aren’t tempted to interrupt themselves during focus time. 

Also, look for standing meetings that might not be needed in a co-located context. For example, the casual catch-ups with colleagues to trade notes and get a heads-up on incoming work: maybe those don’t have to be scheduled weekly meetings anymore. Maybe they can become ad-hoc coffees and lunches. At least get together in person as long as you’ll be in the same building anyway. Strong relationships don’t require face-time all the time, but if face-time is available, why not take advantage? Our research shows that even a little bit of togetherness goes a long way. 

Embrace “factory reset” mode

Shifting back to the office is a good moment to take stock of all your work habits and refresh a few things. Atlassian teams run the Ritual Reset and Working Agreements plays when they experience a significant change (e.g., new leadership or a re-org) to help them adapt to their new reality faster. For example, “headphones on = please don’t disturb me” might be a useful agreement now that you share physical space. 

Other nooks n’ crannies to examine include your inbox. You know you’ve been meaning to hit unsubscribe on roughly half the newsletters and promotional emails you get every day – go do it! Don’t forget to examine and update your work wardrobe and desk decor situations as well. Retail therapy, anyone? 

And if, after all that, working in the office five days a week just doesn’t work, remember that Atlassian is hiring. (Just sayin’.) Stay awesome out there, wherever your “there” may be.

The post RTO’d? Take these distributed practices back to the office with you appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian.

Where the heck did the day go? Time slipped right through my fingers. Next week, things will calm down.

Every single one of us has had those exact thoughts about our workdays. But here’s the harsh truth: You won’t magically find or manufacture more time. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not when that big project is wrapped up. So, according to the laws of physics, you need to make the most of the time you already have. 

That’s where time management strategies come into play. These models go beyond the daily war with your to-do list, helping you execute meaningful work in an efficient and fulfilling way.

How do time management strategies help?

Time management strategies are specific frameworks or systems to maximize your time and energy. Put another way, they help you overcome several common time management roadblocks. 

• Multitasking: Research shows that the human brain is incapable of doing more than one thing at once (unless you count autonomous tasks like breathing). When you think you’re multitasking, you’re actually context switching – rapidly jumping between various tasks. While it might make you feel like you’re dominating your to-do list, this constant switching of gears is a drag on your productivity. Time management strategies help you stop juggling and start focusing.
  
• Fires and emergencies: You know the feeling. Your intentions for your workday are quickly sidetracked by the latest three-alarm emergency that lands in your inbox. While time management strategies won’t keep these red alerts off your desk entirely, they will help you better discern what actually deserves your immediate attention, rather than continuing to play inbox whack-a-mole.
  
• Information overload: Meetings. Emails. Notifications. Calls. Documents. Requests. Day in and day out, you’re inundated with information. That cognitive overload (which is what happens when the volume or complexity of incoming information exceeds your ability to absorb it) causes us to be less effective by seeking out low-value tasks, overlooking important details, and overall just feeling stuck. The right time management strategy can help you filter through the relentless noise to find your starting point.
  
• Energy depletion: Everything we’ve already mentioned – from the last-minute requests to an information avalanche – quickly drains your tank. Time management strategies allow you to be more mindful of not only your time but also your energy levels. With the right approach in your toolbox, you’ll be better equipped to schedule work more strategically and avoid running yourself ragged.

The fundamentals: 13 time management best practices that always hold water

There are several specific time management strategies you can use to make better use of your work hours. We’ll get to those frameworks in a minute. But, regardless of which of those you try, there are a few general time management best practices that are always a good idea – and a good place to start.

1. Audit your time: Want to make better use of your time? You need to know where you’re starting. Whether you use an automated time tracker or a simple notepad, keep track of your work hours and what you get done. Do this for at least a couple of weeks so you can spot trends and identify improvement areas.
   
2. Set goals: Your ultimate objective is to manage your time better, but that can feel broad and intangible. Instead, set time management-related SMART goals to encourage and monitor your progress, such as signing off every weekday by 5PM, or spending the first 15 minutes of every morning making a to-do list.
   
3. Stop procrastinating: Procrastination is one of the biggest culprits eating away at your precious work hours, but it can be tough to overcome. Set a timer, enlist an accountability buddy, or find another hack that nudges you to just get started.
   
4. Break down big tasks: Intimidation could be behind your persistent procrastination. So, break that big undertaking down into more manageable tasks and milestones. It’ll feel less daunting and also give you regular intervals to recognize and celebrate your progress.
   
5. Incentivize yourself: When you reach a milestone or cross off another task, treat yourself. Whether you go for a quick walk or grab your favorite snack, even small, seemingly insignificant rewards can encourage you to keep moving forward.
   
6. Prioritize: Time management is about focusing on your most important work. To do so, you need to parse out the meaningful from the mundane. Strategically ordering your work based on criteria like impact, deadlines, and effort required serves as a good foundation for any time management strategy.
   
7. Schedule breaks: Even the most productive people need adequate time to rest and recharge. No time management system should be synonymous with constant, dogged work. Your brain quite literally needs breaks – brain activity research says so.
   
8. Limit distractions: Even the best time management strategy will suffer if you’re consistently waylaid by pings, pushes, and drop-bys. Try your best to minimize distractions, especially during times when you’re doing deep work.
   
9. Check your environment: Your work environment has a direct impact on your productivity. Sitting on your couch in the dark while hunched over your laptop isn’t conducive to peak focus. Find or create a quiet space with some natural light and at least a somewhat ergonomic setup to support your best work (and, you know, your back).
   
10. Get organized: Searching for what you need isn’t the most efficient use of your time. Get a decent organization system in place so that, when you’re ready to work, you can jump right in.
    
11. Avoid multitasking: Even if you think you’re a whiz at doing several things at once, you’re doing your brain a disservice by trying to multitask. Instead, pick one task to focus on at a time. You’ll get it done better – and faster – than if you had simultaneously juggled it with two other to-do’s.
    
12. Understand your peaks and valleys: You know you best, so think about how your energy tends to ebb and flow throughout the workday. Paying attention to when you’re most focused and energized will help you make the most of those energetic hours, like saving your morning for deep work and cleaning out your inbox after lunch.
    
13. Delegate: You can only do so much with the hours you have. But there’s good news: You don’t have to do it all alone. Knowing what you can delegate (whether you hand tasks off to technology or another person) is one of the best ways to buy yourself more time and reserve your focus for your most meaningful and impactful work.

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5 time management strategies to maximize your time and energy

Now that you’re schooled on the basics, let’s take a look at four widely used time management frameworks.

1. Eisenhower Matrix

What it is: A four-quadrant chart that helps you categorize all your tasks based on their urgency and their importance or impact

How it works: Draw a square and separate it into four even quadrants. Along the y-axis, label those boxes with “important” and “not important.” On the top x-axis, label those boxes with “urgent” and “not urgent.”

Next, categorize each task on your to-do list. Is that slide deck important and urgent? It goes in the top left box. Is your expense report not important but urgent? It goes in the bottom left box. Once everything is sorted, you can approach each category like this:

• Urgent and important: Do these first!
• Urgent and not important: Delegate these if you can. Otherwise, tackle them next.
• Not urgent and important: Schedule time for these in the coming weeks.
• Not urgent and not important: These can fall off your to-do list entirely.

Also called a “prioritization matrix,” this handy tool helps you filter through a lengthy task list and pull out the items that require your immediate attention.

From the Playbook

Allthethings Prioritization Matrix

Run the Play

2. 80/20 Rule

What it is: A principle positing that 80% of your results come from only 20% of your efforts. 

How it works: Since time management is about getting the most meaningful work done, this strategy (also called the Pareto Principle) focuses on finding the highest-impact tasks on your list – with the idea that those will generate the biggest outcomes for your workday.

You’ll likely be drawn to the low-hanging fruit and quick wins on your to-do list, but this guiding principle forces you to look at your tasks through a new lens: Which ones will have the biggest impact?

Cleaning up your inbox probably won’t lead to a substantial result. However, compiling all the data that another team has been waiting on for days will.

3. Time blocking

What it is: A method that involves splitting your day into segments of time and dedicating each one to a specific task. 

How it works: Remember when you were in school and you knew what to expect during every moment of your day? At 11am you’re in chemistry class, at noon you have lunch, and so on.

Time blocking is a lot like that. You’ll create blocks of time on your calendar and assign certain tasks or groups of tasks to that specific spot on your schedule.

For example, maybe you’ll address your emails from 8am to 9am, meet with the design team from 9am to 9:30am, and draft copy for a project from 9:30am to 11:30am. 

It might feel overly prescriptive or rigid. But this level of detail helps you take a more proactive approach to your workday, rather than letting emails, requests, and other people control your entire schedule. 

4. Pomodoro Technique 

What it is: A strategy that breaks your workday into smaller chunks of time (usually 25 minutes) separated by five-minute breaks. 

How it works: Your workday might feel daunting, but you could likely do pretty much anything if you knew it’d only take 25 minutes, right?

That’s the concept behind the Pomodoro Technique. The gist is that you’ll set a timer and work for a period of 25 minutes. When the timer goes off, you take a five-minute break. After doing that cycle (called a “pomodoro”) four times, you take a longer break of about 20 minutes.

It’s helpful for a few reasons. For starters, it can amp up your focus by instilling a greater sense of urgency. Most of us are naturally competitive, so you’ll likely challenge yourself to get as much done as you can in that 25-minute chunk before your timer goes off.

Plus, the Pomodoro Technique has built-in breaks. As counterintuitive as it seems, those regular opportunities to step away can give a major boost to your energy and productivity.

5. Not-to-do list

What it is: A documented list of time-wasting tasks and negative behaviors you’ll consistently and reliably avoid

How it works: You’re familiar with a to-do list, but this is the exact opposite. Rather than making a list of all of the things you want to get done, you’ll write a list of the things you won’t do.

What are the vices or bad habits that consistently distract you from your work? Or the tasks that you’ve supposedly delegated but still manage to find you anyway? Or the things you know you should say “no” to but have a hard time resisting?

Those are the types of things that go on your not-to-do list. While it might sound like a silly exercise, writing things down is powerful. This simple activity can help you gain clarity about the areas where you need to be careful and resist falling into old, unproductive patterns and routines.

Which time management strategy should you try?

These five time management strategies put you in the driver’s seat of your tasks, schedule, time, and energy, each in a different way. But that doesn’t mean you should roll out all of them at once.

You’ll see better results if you pick one. Not sure how to figure out which one will be the biggest difference-maker for you? This one-minute quiz will point you in the right direction.

Once you know which time management strategy is best suited to you and your goals, test it out and see if it makes a noticeable difference. If it’s the right fit, you shouldn’t just get more done – you should feel more fulfilled and energized by what you’ve accomplished.

The post Quiz: Which time management strategy is right for you? appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian.

Flipping a coin. Throwing a dart at a board. Pulling a slip of paper out of a hat.

Sure, they’re all ways to make a choice. But they all hinge on random chance rather than analysis, reflection, and strategy – you know, the things you actually need to make the big, meaty decisions that have major impacts.

So, set down that Magic 8 Ball and back away slowly. Let’s walk through the standard framework for decision-making that will help you and your team pinpoint the problem, consider your options, and make your most informed selection. Here’s a closer look at each of the seven steps of the decision-making process, and how to approach each one. 

Step 1: Identify the decision

Most of us are eager to tie on our superhero capes and jump into problem-solving mode — especially if our team is depending on a solution. But you can’t solve a problem until you have a full grasp on what it actually is.

This first step focuses on getting the lay of the land when it comes to your decision. What specific problem are you trying to solve? What goal are you trying to achieve? 

How to do it: 

• Use the 5 whys analysis to go beyond surface-level symptoms and understand the root cause of a problem.
  
• Try problem framing to dig deep on the ins and outs of whatever problem your team is fixing. The point is to define the problem, not solve it. 

Watch out for: Decision fatigue, which is the tendency to make worse decisions as a result of needing to make too many of them. Making choices is mentally taxing, which is why it’s helpful to pinpoint one decision at a time. 

2. Gather information

Your team probably has a few hunches and best guesses, but those can lead to knee-jerk reactions. Take care to invest adequate time and research into your decision.

This step is when you build your case, so to speak. Collect relevant information — that could be data, customer stories, information about past projects, feedback, or whatever else seems pertinent. You’ll use that to make decisions that are informed, rather than impulsive.

How to do it: 

• Host a team mindmapping session to freely explore ideas and make connections between them. It can help you identify what information will best support the process.
  
• Create a project poster to define your goals and also determine what information you already know and what you still need to find out. 

Watch out for: Information bias, or the tendency to seek out information even if it won’t impact your action. We have the tendency to think more information is always better, but pulling together a bunch of facts and insights that aren’t applicable may cloud your judgment rather than offer clarity. 

3. Identify alternatives

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Blame the popularity of the coin toss, but making a decision often feels like choosing between only two options. Do you want heads or tails? Door number one or door number two?

In reality, your options aren’t usually so cut and dried. Take advantage of this opportunity to get creative and brainstorm all sorts of routes or solutions. There’s no need to box yourselves in. 

How to do it: 

• Use the Six Thinking Hats technique to explore the problem or goal from all sides: information, emotions and instinct, risks, benefits, and creativity. It can help you and your team break away from your typical roles or mindsets and think more freely.
  
• Try brainwriting so team members can write down their ideas independently before sharing with the group. Research shows that this quiet, lone thinking time can boost psychological safety and generate more creative suggestions.
  

Watch out for: Groupthink, which is the tendency of a group to make non-optimal decisions in the interest of conformity. People don’t want to rock the boat, so they don’t speak up. 

4. Consider the evidence

Armed with your list of alternatives, it’s time to take a closer look and determine which ones could be worth pursuing. You and your team should ask questions like “How will this solution address the problem or achieve the goal?” and “What are the pros and cons of this option?” 

Be honest with your answers (and back them up with the information you already collected when you can). Remind the team that this isn’t about advocating for their own suggestions to “win” — it’s about whittling your options down to the best decision. 

How to do it:

• Use a SWOT analysis to dig into the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the options you’re seriously considering.
  
• Run a project trade-off analysis to understand what constraints (such as time, scope, or cost) the team is most willing to compromise on if needed. 

Watch out for: Extinction by instinct, which is the urge to make a decision just to get it over with. You didn’t come this far to settle for a “good enough” option! 

5. Choose among the alternatives

This is it — it’s the big moment when you and the team actually make the decision. You’ve identified all possible options, considered the supporting evidence, and are ready to choose how you’ll move forward.

However, bear in mind that there’s still a surprising amount of room for flexibility here. Maybe you’ll modify an alternative or combine a few suggested solutions together to land on the best fit for your problem and your team. 

How to do it: 

• Use the DACI framework (that stands for “driver, approver, contributor, informed”) to understand who ultimately has the final say in decisions. The decision-making process can be collaborative, but eventually someone needs to be empowered to make the final call.
  
• Try a simple voting method for decisions that are more democratized. You’ll simply tally your team’s votes and go with the majority. 

Watch out for: Analysis paralysis, which is when you overthink something to such a great degree that you feel overwhelmed and freeze when it’s time to actually make a choice. 

6. Take action

Making a big decision takes a hefty amount of work, but it’s only the first part of the process — now you need to actually implement it. 

It’s tempting to think that decisions will work themselves out once they’re made. But particularly in a team setting, it’s crucial to invest just as much thought and planning into communicating the decision and successfully rolling it out. 

How to do it:

• Create a stakeholder communications plan to determine how you’ll keep various people — direct team members, company leaders, customers, or whoever else has an active interest in your decision — in the loop on your progress.
  
• Define the goals, signals, and measures of your decision so you’ll have an easier time aligning the team around the next steps and determining whether or not they’re successful. 

Watch out for: Self-doubt, or the tendency to question whether or not you’re making the right move. While we’re hardwired for doubt, now isn’t the time to be a skeptic about your decision. You and the team have done the work, so trust the process. 

7. Review your decision

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As the decision itself starts to shake out, it’s time to take a look in the rearview mirror and reflect on how things went.

Did your decision work out the way you and the team hoped? What happened? Examine both the good and the bad. What should you keep in mind if and when you need to make this sort of decision again? 

How to do it: 

• Do a 4 L’s retrospective to talk through what you and the team loved, loathed, learned, and longed for as a result of that decision.
  
• Celebrate any wins (yes, even the small ones) related to that decision. It gives morale a good kick in the pants and can also help make future decisions feel a little less intimidating.
  

Watch out for: Hindsight bias, or the tendency to look back on events with the knowledge you have now and beat yourself up for not knowing better at the time. Even with careful thought and planning, some decisions don’t work out — but you can only operate with the information you have at the time. 

Making smart decisions about the decision-making process

You’re probably picking up on the fact that the decision-making process is fairly comprehensive. And the truth is that the model is likely overkill for the small and inconsequential decisions you or your team members need to make.

Deciding whether you should order tacos or sandwiches for your team offsite doesn’t warrant this much discussion and elbow grease. But figuring out which major project to prioritize next? That requires some careful and collaborative thought. 

It all comes back to the concept of satisficing versus maximizing, which are two different perspectives on decision-making. Here’s the gist:

• Maximizers aim to get the very best out of every single decision.
  
• Satisficers are willing to settle for “good enough” rather than obsessing over achieving the best outcome.

One of those isn’t necessarily better than the other – and, in fact, they both have their time and place.

A major decision with far-reaching impacts deserves some fixation and perfectionism. However, hemming and hawing over trivial choices (“Should we start our team meeting with casual small talk or a structured icebreaker?”) will only cause added stress, frustration, and slowdowns. 

As with anything else, it’s worth thinking about the potential impacts to determine just how much deliberation and precision a decision actually requires. 

Decision-making is one of those things that’s part art and part science. You’ll likely have some gut feelings and instincts that are worth taking into account. But those should also be complemented with plenty of evidence, evaluation, and collaboration.

The decision-making process is a framework that helps you strike that balance. Follow the seven steps and you and your team can feel confident in the decisions you make – while leaving the darts and coins where they belong.

The post This is how effective teams navigate the decision-making process appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian.

How many meetings have you attended this week where the only decision made was to schedule another meeting? More than you’d like to admit?

Unfortunately, we’ve found this is the predominant outcome of most meetings. In our recent survey of 5,000 knowledge workers, 77% of respondents say they frequently attend meetings that end in a decision to schedule a follow-up meeting. Even worse, 54% of workers frequently leave meetings without a clear idea of next steps or who owns which task.

Meetings that end without clear outcomes are not only ineffective – they are demotivating and waste valuable time that could be put toward priority work. It’s time we stop meeting like this.

I lead the Team Anywhere Lab at Atlassian, a group of behavioral scientists dedicated to designing and validating the best ways to work for modern teams. We conducted an experiment to help teams run more productive, less frustrating meetings.

Why don’t traditional meetings work?

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Traditional meetings rely on slides or a few people talking to set the context of why the meeting is taking place and the decisions that need to be made. These ways of meeting don’t work because:

• Meetings don’t get to the point fast enough. Too much of the meeting time is spent setting the stage. Participants are stuck waiting to understand specific meeting goals and what is needed from their participation. Once discussion is underway, participants are often rushed for time.
• Slides are not created with the audience (or objective) in mind. Slides often fail to clarify the main message, discussion points, and intended outcomes for participants. As a result, slides are more of an info dump than a helpful tool for making decisions in real time.
• Presenters and participants aren’t on the same page. Attendees can no longer refer to information once a presenter has moved forward, or are distracted clicking around slides while the presenter talks.
• Decisions made in meetings aren’t documented. There is rarely a record of the meeting for anyone who wasn’t there. If someone does take notes or record the call, they may be buried in someone’s computer. More often than not, the context that led to the outcome usually gets lost.

The page-led meeting experiment

We (and many others at Atlassian) have adopted a different way to meet we call “page-led meetings.” My team designed an experiment to validate through research whether the use of a high-quality written page, in fact, facilitates more effective meetings.

Thirty-four Atlassians from across the company were split into two groups. The control group facilitated a meeting as they typically would. The second group took a course on how to facilitate a meeting with a page. They were asked to use what they learned to write a page and facilitate a meeting with it.

After their meetings, we surveyed the meeting attendees and facilitators (104 Atlassians in total) about their experience. We also analyzed the pages used to facilitate the meetings.

Our experiment shows that page-led meetings are:

1. Less frustrating and more energizing
2. Rated as a better use of time
3. More likely to accomplish team goals

Reduce meeting friction to achieve your goals

Our data shows that Atlassians who attended page-led meetings were 29% more likely to feel energized after the meeting and 23% less likely to feel frustrated. Making meetings a more positive experience removes the friction that can come when participants are confused, frustrated, or disengaged.

To this point, our model indicates that page-led meetings led to higher attendee energy and lower attendee frustration, which in turn led to higher goal accomplishment. In fact, 85% of page-led meetings accomplished their goals (versus 69% of control meetings).

Engage meeting participants through a crisp, clear page

Our data shows that those who attended a page-led meeting by a facilitator who had received training consistently rated it as a better use of time than those in the control group. Pages created by those in the training group were on average shorter (3-minute read on average) than those in the control group who chose to use a page, but had not received training (5.7-minute read).

The results show that the approach is valuable for both meeting participants and facilitators. 14 out of 16 meeting facilitators would recommend the approach they learned in the training to a colleague.

Ready for better meetings? Learn how to run a page-led meeting in the Atlassian Team Playbook.

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You know those days at work when there are a million things on your to-do list, but somehow, you’re not getting the important stuff done? 

It’s the opposite of the “flow state” – you can feel your cortisol spiking out of control. At the end of the day, you’re left feeling depleted, because you didn’t have the mental space to focus on what truly matters. 

That feeling doesn’t mean you’re lazy or unqualified. According to Stanford Professor Huggy Rao, it could mean the wrong things are demanding too much of your time and attention. Rao calls these blockers “friction,” and they make work less fulfilling and less productive. 

In a new book, The Friction Project, co-authored by Robert I. Sutton, Rao investigates where this kind of friction comes from, how it holds us back, and what we can do about it. 

Friction 101

“Bad friction is the workplace obstacles that overwhelm, infuriate, and de-energize people,” explains Rao. “It holds people back from becoming the most curious, generous versions of their professional selves.”

The infamous “meeting that could have been an email” is a classic example of friction – but it’s not always so easy to spot. Friction hides in sneaky places, from the way you talk to the software you use. 

“There’s one young woman I spoke to whom I’ll never forget,” Rao shares. “She said, I do too much inconsequential work and it takes a toll on me. When I go home, all I’ve got left are the scraps of myself for me and my family.”

There are also good kinds of friction – situations where too much ease is a bad thing, and slowing down helps us do better work. Keep reading, or pick up The Friction Project, for the lowdown on those.

7 sneaky ways friction is holding you back at work

Many sources of friction are intended to make your life easier. But they’re actually harming your productivity, if not your mental health. Here are seven stealthy sources of friction that are making your work life harder. 

1. Paying (too much) attention to your boss

We all feel pressure to be seen as go-getters and self-starters – someone the boss can rely on. It’s tempting to hang onto your boss or manager’s every word, and immediately leap into action. Rao calls this “executive magnification,” and it can lead to massive amounts of wasted resources. 

A classic example from The Friction Project? After the CEO complained about a rude clerk he’d encountered, 7-Eleven launched a multimillion-dollar campaign to improve cashier friendliness. 

But the CEO was just venting – he actually thought fast service was more important than excessive politeness. 7-Eleven’s research backed him up, but resources had already been poured into the hasty campaign. 

Fix the friction: 

We’re not suggesting you ignore your boss, or tell them to go take a hike. The fix is simple – clarify your understanding before taking action. Otherwise, you risk jumping the gun, and sinking too much time into the wrong things. 

This doesn’t just apply to high-stakes situations – executive magnification can distort small daily workflows, too. For example, you may not need to rush a response to that off-hours Slack message. Why not just ask your boss how quickly they expect to hear back? 

2. Double-, triple-, and quadruple-checking every decision

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Most commonly, leadership is to blame for this one. Too many executives and managers insist on re-evaluating their teams’ decisions – sometimes, multiple times over!

Rao calls this “decision amnesia.” Not only does this behavior waste time and energy, it erodes trust and damages relationships. When people have worked hard to reach a decision, it’s demoralizing when their leaders restart the process, going back to the drawing board because they don’t trust their team.

Decision amnesia can happen among colleagues as well. If your team struggles with making a final decision and moving forward, you’ll need to cultivate shared confidence. 

Fix the friction: 

“To beat decision amnesia, you want to set clear rules for revisiting an issue,” says Rao. “A team could agree that once they’ve reached a decision, you won’t revisit it for two months, barring specific, predetermined extenuating circumstances.”

In The Friction Project, Rao also shares Patty McCord’s, former Chief Talent Officer at Netflix, tactic to beat decision amnesia. Every time she wrapped up an executive meeting, she’d ask the room, “have we made any decisions here today, and if we have, how are we going to communicate them?” If anyone at the meeting didn’t see their decisions as final, those questions would make it immediately clear. 

3. Reinventing processes that are working just fine 

It’s tempting to keep looking for the magic ritual, method, or tool that will fix everything. And obviously, continuous improvement is a great goal. 

But often, our lives don’t get easier when parts of our job keep being upgraded. In fact, you might feel like you’re on a hamster wheel –constantly introducing new systems that add complexity, take time to implement, and deliver marginal returns at best. 

“One of our biggest findings from The Friction Project was that nearly everyone suffers from addition sickness,” explains Rao. “It doesn’t matter which company you work for; we’re all constantly adding things.”

Instead, Rao offers some surprising advice: “not everything worth doing is worth doing well.” In many cases, it’s okay (and inevitable) for some things to be merely “good enough.” 

Fix the friction: 

A super-common culprit in distributed workplaces? Software. For example, a newly hired project manager may push for team-wide migration to her tool of choice. But that creates friction for her teammates, who are forced to re-learn their workflows from scratch.

“If you only think of how tools, systems, and processes affect you, ignoring spillover effects on other people, then you’re barking up the wrong tree,” explains Rao.

Instead, companies should carefully vet whether every single new addition is worthwhile – and make sure everyone has a voice. Before adopting that new PM tool, the company in our example above could have everyone complete a quick survey, asking how satisfied they are with the current system and how critical it is to their work. 

4. Conversely, being afraid to change the way you’ve always done it

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But on the flip side, there’s a balance here. Sometimes, good enough is fine. But teams should also be comfortable pointing out when a tool or process actually is slowing people down and making life harder. 

At those times, a change is well warranted – and the people who advocate for it are heroes! 

In The Friction Project, Rao explains how management consulting firm Bain discovered a single weekly executive sync was costing their client three hundred thousand hours per year in prep time . Dropbox had a similar goal with “Armeetingeddon,” an initiative that removed all meetings from employee calendars and made it impossible to add new ones for two weeks. 

Fix the friction: 

Watch out for that stressful, frazzled feeling of your time and energy being stolen. “If you feel spread too thin, like peanut butter on toast, you have a problem,” says Rao. “You need to narrow your focus, and identify where you can make a distinct impact.”

That means it’s time for G.R.O.S.S. – Getting Rid of Stupid Stuff! In The Friction Project, Huggy suggests leading teams in group games or brainstorming sessions to identify “stupid stuff,” such as excessive meetings, emails, and performance reviews. 

Even if you’re not in a position to lead a company-wide G.R.O.S.S. campaign, you can remove stupid stuff in your own sphere of influence – or at the very least, let your manager know it’s there. 

5. Over-focusing on your own department or team 

It’s important for your team to be strong as a unit. But it’s equally important, if not more so, to integrate well with the rest of your organization. 

When teams over-focus on their day-to-day, it’s like they’ve got blinders on. They lose touch with their work’s greater purpose – and in the worst-case scenario, impair their ability to accomplish it. Rao calls this issue “component focus,” and it can be especially pervasive on highly specialized teams.

In The Friction Project, Rao explains how a woman being treated for cancer couldn’t get two departments at the same hospital to share information about her appointments. She had to walk her medical files over to the other department herself, still dressed in her hospital gown.

Fix the friction:

One powerful way to help people see themselves as part of something bigger? Storytelling. 

“Stories are a way to create common understanding,” says Rao. “Some studies show that when we share stories in a group setting, oxytocin, or the trust molecule, actually goes up.”

Leaders, managers, and teams can use storytelling to help people connect with the greater purpose of their work. At the hospital mentioned above, the oncology team lead could frame their work as “supporting patients’ healing,” not “applying advanced treatments for specific types of cancer.”

This strategy can be especially helpful as part of the onboarding process, so new hires see themselves as part of one unified organization, not just one team.  

6. Communicating too much while saying too little 

Words are powerful, and communication is the building block of collaboration. But words also have the power to confuse and distract us, or to obscure real and serious problems.

This is what Huggy calls “jargon monoxide,” and it’s rampant in the contemporary business world. If you’ve ever felt your eyes glaze over as you struggled to keep up with an onslaught of corporate buzzwords, you’ve experienced jargon monoxide poisoning. 

Here are a few sneaky ways jargon monoxide sneaks into our workplace language:

• Using too many words, or overly complicated words
• Vague or meaningless language, like “leverage core competencies towards key goals”
• Using specialized terms with people outside your team or discipline 
• Using words that mean different things to different people, like “pipeline” or “agile”

Fix the friction:

“You don’t need an arsenal of tactics to beat jargon monoxide,” says Rao. “Every time you say something, ask yourself: can a 10-year-old understand this easily? If the answer is yes, it will scale across a company of 10,000 people.”

Another crucial tip? Use concrete, descriptive language. “Say one boss told you to ‘deliver superior customer service,’ and another said ‘your job is to put a smile on the customer’s face,’” says Rao. “Which phrase is easier to understand?”

7. Aiming too high, too fast

Dreaming big is great. But as Rao puts it, “too much speed at the wrong time kills people.” Pushing people to work too fast, or achieve unrealistic outcomes, can yield genuinely harmful results long-term. 

This is where “constructive friction” comes into play. Put simply, sometimes great work can’t be rushed – especially creativity, or high-stakes work. If organizations attempt otherwise, they risk burnout, poor decision-making, and even selfishness, as people feel too overwhelmed by their own overloaded plates to help one another. 

Fix the friction: 

The fix here is simple, though not necessarily easy. Slow things down, and add some good friction!

“In Massachusetts, Blue Cross found that physicians may have been overprescribing opioids,” says Rao. “So, they told physicians to write a one-page memo explaining their reasoning for every prescription. The memo took only 8-10 minutes per patient. But by adding this positive friction, they lowered opioid prescriptions by 21 million across the state.”

The Friction Project book, eBook, and audio book are available now from Macmillan Publishers. Learn more and connect with Huggy Rao at his website.

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