Here’s a question from Daniel:
I work as an executive assistant in a multinational company. I have noted that lately some of the Teams meeting requests i get are planned to start later (typically 5 minutes into the hour) or end up earlier than the bottom or top of the hour. Any idea on how to configure Outlook or Teams to shorten the default meeting length of 30 or 60 minutes by 5 or 10 minutes. I would also be glad to set 15 minutes if possible, but that also currently seems impossible in the Microsoft Teams Calendar app. Thanks for your answer.
Adjust your standard meeting length
Are you scheduling multiple Teams meetings each day only to find yourself manually changing the duration every time? Many organizations have the standard 30-minute or 1-hour meeting durations set as default, but these fixed durations might not suit all your meeting needs. You might need 45-minute meetings for team check-ins or 15-minute quick syncs for project updates. Constantly adjusting these settings wastes valuable time when you’re scheduling multiple meetings throughout your workweek.
Set Teams meetings length to end early or start late
Assuming that you use Microsoft Outlook and have Teams set as your default meeting provider, you can shorten your default meeting length. Note that customizing meeting duration beyond the default values of 30 or 60 minutes is currently not supported in the Teams calendar.
To change your default Teams meeting duration from Outlook, proceed as following:
- In Outlook, hit the File command.
- Then select Options, and pick the Outlook Options Calendar tab.
- In the Calendar Options section, set the default duration for appointments and meetings (step 1).
- Then define whether your meetings will be shortened by starting late or end later (step 2).
- Last define the time duration which will be removed from your meetings 3.
- Hit OK.
That’s it – from now on, any Teams meetings you organize via Outlook will be shortened as defined.
Note: the process above will work on Windows, but also in Outlook for macOS.
Switch to old default Teams meeting length
In case that you are interested to restore back to back meetings, proceed as following:
- In the Microsoft Outlook Ribbon , hit File.
- Hit Options
- Then select Calendar.
- Uncheck the Shorten appointments and meetings checkbox.
- Hit OK.
From now on, all meetings that you will set from Outlook will be booked for 30 or 60 minutes by default. That said, you can always make your best to end your meeting earlier :-).
Troubleshooting issues
Changed default duration not applying to new meetings: Ensure you’ve changed the settings in Outlook Options rather than just for an individual meeting, then restart both Outlook and Teams applications for the changes to take effect properly.
Meeting duration automatically shortened: Microsoft has implemented a feature that automatically ends meetings 5 minutes early (for 30-minute meetings) or 10 minutes early (for 60-minute meetings) to give people time between consecutive meetings, check if this setting is enabled in Outlook Calendar options.
Meeting duration changes not syncing between Outlook and Teams: Ensure both applications are up to date and properly connected to the same Microsoft 365 account, and allow sufficient time for changes to synchronize between the services.