Buffer time
Spare time set between meetings. Using it for travel, preparation, and rest reduces fatigue.
Buffer time is free time deliberately set aside between meetings. It is set up to secure travel time, reflect on the previous meeting, prepare for the next one, and refresh the brain. In an EEG experiment published in 2021 by a Microsoft research team (Human Factors Lab), a rise in a stress indicator was observed under the condition where meetings ran back to back without breaks. The experiment covered a small group of only 14 subjects, and it does not show that the effect of buffer time has been generally established.
Microsoft’s research findings
Findings from EEG measurement (2021)
- When four 30-minute meetings ran back to back without breaks, beta waves (a stress indicator) rose cumulatively
- Under the condition with 10-minute meditation breaks between meetings, a decrease in beta waves was observed
- Under the no-break condition, the EEG indicator of engagement in the meeting also showed lower values (the break condition showed values indicating high engagement)
- Under the no-break condition, the stress indicator spiked during the transition from one meeting to the next (with breaks, the rise at the start of the next meeting was gentler)
How to set up buffer time
Google Calendar has a setting that shortens the default length of meetings, which can automatically cut a 30-minute meeting to 25 minutes and a 60-minute meeting to 50 minutes. Outlook also has a setting that shortens the default length by letting you choose whether to end events early or start them late. This automatically creates 5 to 10 minutes of buffer on the calendar.
Some organizations also institutionalize buffer time at the organizational level. For example, by setting rules such as “end meetings at 55 minutes past the hour” or “no more than 3 meetings in a row,” you can secure buffers without relying on individual discretion. It is a design positioned so that preventing meeting fatigue is not left to personal effort alone.
The structure that makes buffers disappear
Because buffer time looks like “leftover time,” it always gets eroded if left alone. Overruns from the previous meeting eat into it, and new events are slotted in because it looks free. There are two key points to protecting it. First, embed the buffer not in individual goodwill but in the calendar’s default values (the automatic shortening setting). Second, pair it with a practice of ending meetings on time (running the meeting so that wrap-up starts 5 minutes before the end). Even with the shortening setting in place, if meetings run long, the buffer ends up existing only on paper.