Among its main findings is a familiar sentiment: The hour-long meeting is not very popular.

The study found that 30 minutes is the preferred meeting duration by 36% of the respondents, followed by 15 minutes at 31%. Traditionalists who can't let go of 60-minute meets held firm at 20%, with 45 minutes  and 20 minutes bringing up the rear at 4% apiece. The researchers at Doodle believe the 15-minute meeting has gained traction during the pandemic as a way to touch base quickly with the emotional needs of employees. Also, a type of 15-minute meeting is the "stand-up," during which participants are required to stand as a way of keeping contributions concise.

Perhaps less surprisingly, Doodle discovered that virtual group meetings accounted for 41% of meetings scheduled in Q2 2020, and the number of virtual-only group meetings rose by 109% during that time. As a nod to the importance once again of touching base with employees, virtual one-on-one meetings rose by 136% compared to the previous quarter.

The researchers noted a trend toward smaller meeting group sizes. Nearly half of all group meetings (44%) during Q2 were made up of four to seven people, with 24% even smaller with four to five participants. Only 4% of meetings had 10 or 11 participants.

The most popular day for meetings in Q2 was Thursday, with Tuesday and Wednesday tying for second most popular. The preferred meeting time was between 12-2PM, followed by 9-11AM. Doodle notes that close to 7 percent of American meetings took place between 7-11PM. "While this might seem surprising to some, we believe this may actually contribute to the country's overworking culture," the researchers write. "Here's why. Because Americans are scheduling so many meetings during the actual workday (between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm), they are purposely keeping their evenings meeting-free. But they are likely using that evening time to catch up on work they couldn't finish due to the excessive number of meetings booked during the workday."

"The report's findings illustrate just how important and complicated meetings actually are," says Renato Profico, CEO of Doodle. "Thinking it's as simple as completing one task or using one tool is where many people go wrong. Rather, it requires a holistic approach – from considering factors, such as meeting size, duration, notice period and time, to implementing the right technology to optimize processes, save time and, ultimately, enable teams, colleagues and clients to work more collaboratively across the entire meeting lifecycle."

Read more: 

• 15 best practices for remote phone meetings
• Rethinking health and productivity for the 21st century workplace
• 5 steps to better meetings