Meeting Hangover: What Is It And When Does It Hit?

by Alexandra Mansilla

Meeting Hangover: What Is It And When Does It Hit?

29 Apr 2025

Ever feel like work calls just drain the life out of you? And we are not talking about the ones where you have to do a lot of talking or walk away with a long to-do list. We mean the calls that leave you feeling like the whole thing was pointless — like your brain got filled with information you didn’t need, or worse, like the whole call was just a blur of voices and noise.

And after that, you are left feeling weirdly heavy, unfocused, and completely unable to get anything done?

Yeah. We have all been there. And it actually has a name: meeting hangover. Because honestly, the feeling is almost exactly like a real hangover.

And no — it is not just in your head. There is data! A study published in Harvard Business Review, conducted by researchers from the University of North Carolina and the team at Asana, surveyed over 5,000 knowledge workers in the U.S. and U.K. to understand what bad meetings do to us — and what happens after. It turns out that more than 90% of respondents said they experience meeting hangovers at least occasionally. Over half said it negatively impacts their workflow or productivity, and 47% said it makes them feel less engaged with their work.

Some people can shake it off in a couple of hours. But for many, it lasts the whole day. Which just proves: bad meetings don’t actually end when they are over — they linger. You stay in that foggy state, still mentally processing a conversation that didn’t go anywhere, and feeling totally drained. That is the hangover.

And yes, now you have a name for it. You can officially say, “I’m not getting anything done because I’m having a meeting hangover.” Feels better already, right?

Photo: Getty Images for Unsplash+

But let’s not just sit in it — let’s fix it. First, the causes.

According to the same study, the biggest culprits are: irrelevant topics (59%), lack of a clear agenda or objective (also 59%), poor time management (53%), no actionable outcomes or follow-up (48%), unequal participation (39%), low participation overall (38%), and ineffective facilitation (30%). Basically, people talking too much, people not talking enough, and meetings that go nowhere.

Now, the cure.

Don’t dominate — facilitate. If you are running the meeting, don’t hog the mic. Your job isn’t to be the loudest voice — it is to make space for the right voices. Especially the ones who don’t usually jump in. Less monologue, more dialogue.

Cut the guest list. If someone’s sitting in your meeting thinking, “Why am I here?” — they probably shouldn’t be. Invite only the people who are essential. Everyone else? Send them a follow-up or a short Loom.

Make agendas useful. Not just a list of vague topics. Build them around real questions. Not “project update,” but “what’s blocking this launch, and how do we fix it?”

Keep it short. Meetings don’t need to be an hour just because the calendar says so. If you can do it in 30 minutes, do it. End early. People will love you.

And last, assign ownership. Every item discussed should end with a name next to it. If no one’s clearly responsible, nothing is going to happen.

The meeting hangover is real — but luckily, so is the solution.

by Alexandra Mansilla