Ben MortonLeadership Trainer, Coach and Speaker

The Impact Of Back To Back Meetings On Your Focus

28 May 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:03

In this brief presentation, Ben Morton explains how moving directly from one meeting to the next creates three major issues that undermine focus and productivity. First, the stress of sustained, narrow, reactive attention persists between meetings, which is only useful in short bursts. Second, there is a mental lag before a person can fully engage in the next conversation, causing them to appear distracted or rude despite being physically present. Third, the lack of even a minute’s pause eliminates processing time, preventing reflection on the just‑concluded meeting. These points illustrate why back‑to‑back meetings degrade mental performance and interpersonal dynamics.

Chapters

We leave one meeting and within seconds we're straight into the next, often still looking at our screen, still thinking about the meeting that's just happened. And that creates a few significant problems. Number one, stress naturally follows our focus. That's useful in short bursts, but not between meetings. If we stay locked onto a screen, we stay in that narrow reactive state. And secondly, there's a delay before you fully engage in the next conversation. Yes, you might be physically present, but mentally part of you is still in the meeting that you've just left, and that can come across to the people in the next meeting as you being distracted or even a little rude. And third, you lose the processing time because without even a minute to pause, you don't get to reflect on what just happened.