Early on in my professional career, I was very fortunate to have a great manager who taught me the ropes of our specific business and more generally how to work effectively.  One of the most important things I learned from him was to shut my laptop, turn off the email notifications on my phone, and to pay attention when I was in a meeting.

There is a reason why you are supposed to be in this meeting.  If you are in a meeting, then be there.  If you have something else you have to get done, then excuse yourself and go do that thing.

Now, I know this isn’t always the case.  We’re often called into any number of meetings that probably don’t require our presence, and its up to us to decide what the most effective use of our time is.

However, if we’re supposed to be in a meeting because the topic needs our input, then close the laptop, put the phone down, turn the email dings off, so you can truly focus on the topic at hand and get it done.  It will make for less distraction for you and the other people in the meeting AND most likely shorten your meetings altogether because you aren’t constantly diverting your focus to other topics.