You found our list of awesome virtual morning meeting activities.
Virtual morning meetings are video calls that take place at the start of the workday. Activities and games for these meetings are ways to liven up these online meetings. The purpose of these activities is to spark discussion and thought and energize the group.
These exercises are similar to morning meetings games and virtual meeting activities, and are examples of Zoom meeting ideas and virtual employee engagement activities. Many of these ideas also work for online classrooms and all hands meetings.
This post includes:
- virtual morning meeting games
- fun virtual morning huddle ideas
- online morning meeting activities
Here is the list!
List of virtual morning meeting activities
From yoga to cartoons to quotes of the day, here is a list of ideas for morning meetings to energize the group and get team members interacting.
1. Early Morning Scavenger Hunt
Lightning scavenger hunts are a way to get remote teams up and moving in the morning. In these games, a host asks players to fetch items one at a time, and participants race to grab the clues. The first player who returns to the screen and shows the object wins one point.
Here is a template we made for morning games:
Check out these tips for virtual scavenger hunts.
2. Breakfast in Bed
One of the best ways to make morning meetings more fun is to enjoy breakfast during the call. Attendees can join the call from bed, and pajamas are welcome. The team can engage in shop talk or casual conversation while chowing down on breakfast together. This activity encourages employees to eat a hearty meal instead of grabbing a quick bite or skipping breakfast altogether. If you are feeling extra ambitious, then you can even cook breakfast together during the call. Breakfast in bed is a leisurely and satisfying way to start the day.
Pro tip: Reimburse takeout costs for the meal. You can give each call a theme such as omelettes, french toast, or healthy breakfast, and ask each attendee to show off dishes to the group.
For more food-related team building, check out this list of online cooking classes.
3. Donut Calls
Donut is a Slack app that pairs random team members for a casual chat. You can use this app to facilitate virtual coffee breaks, which are casual online meet and greets where teammates can chat about non-work topics and get to know each other better. Starting the morning with these informal calls can help remote workers ease into the workday and can act as a morale booster that puts team members in a good mood.
You can also brew up a cup of coffee and enjoy a donut, muffin, or breakfast pastry during the call.
Check out this guide to virtual coffee breaks.
4. Yoga
Yoga is a way to energize and focus the team for the day. Starting the day with a stretch encourages remote employees to exercise and be more active, and helps team members enter a more positive mindset for the day.
To do virtual yoga in a morning meeting, either find a team member or guest yogi to lead the flow, or find a video to follow online. If doing yoga as part of a morning meeting, then it is best to find a ten or fifteen minute routine. However, you can also hold a longer class directly before or after your meeting.
Pro tip: Do sunrise yoga, and perform your routines at dawn outside or in front of a window that lets in the light.
Check out this tutorial for team building yoga.
5. Morning Meditations
Morning meditations are a way to center your team and start the day with calm and focus. You can either assign a team member to lead the exercise, or find a video or audio meditation to follow. Basic meditations often involve either closing eyes or staring at a focal point, sitting in a relaxed position, paying attention to breath, and clearing the mind or thinking about a specified topic. Some practitioners like to play calming music or white noise in the background to make it easier to tune out.
Check out more employee wellness ideas.
6. Early Call Icebreakers
Your sleepy staff may struggle to make conversation in the morning. Kicking off the call with icebreaker questions can get communication flowing and make it easier to talk about work topics afterwards.
You can use a question generator to pull up random conversation prompts. Or, jumpstart conversation with one of these thematic virtual morning meeting questions:
- What is your goal for today?
- What is the best thing to wake up to?
- What is the worst thing to wake up to?
- What is your favorite breakfast?
- What is the strangest dream you have ever had?
- What is your morning routine?
Check out our master list of icebreaker questions.
7. Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day is one of the best ways to begin morning meetings. This activity involves sharing a saying that sparks thought or discussion and puts teammates into the mindset to do top-quality work.
The group can take a minute to reflect on the quote and brainstorm ways in which the saying applies to the workplace.
To make the activity more interactive, you could also assign a different employee to choose the quote of the day at every meeting.
For inspiration, check out this list of quotes of the day for work, and this one with HR quotes.
8. Breakfast Meeting Bingo
A spirited game of Bingo can help teams interact with each other first thing in the morning. To play this game, split the group into breakout rooms to talk and mark off squares. The first group to block off five squares in a row wins.
Here is a template we made for your game:
For more game ideas, check out this guide to remote meeting Bingo.
9. Inbox Sprint
Inbox sprints are a productive way to start morning meetings. The goal of this activity is to reach inbox zero so that team members start the day with a clean digital slate. To start the sprint, ask participants to log into email. Then, put 10 to 15 minutes on the clock, and challenge teammates to read, delete, and organize all unread email in that timespan.
You can also reward teammates who start the game with clean inboxes with praise or a prize.
10. Clean Desk Showdown
The clean desk showdown is an impromptu activity that awards teammates who keep neat workspaces. Simply ask teammates to show desks during the meeting, and every team member who has a clean desk wins a small prize like a coffee gift card or gets entered into a raffle for a larger prize, like a tablet. You can repeat the activity at random to incentivize employees to keep desks clean, and can also give messy workers a moment to tidy up.
Check out more workplace competitions.
11. Daily Challenge
Daily challenge is a goal-setting exercise that can help structure the remote workday. At the start of the day during the meeting, announce a goal or challenge. This objective may be work related, for example, close deals with two new clients or answer 50 customer service emails, or just for fun, like drinking 64 oz of water or beating coworkers at three Slack games. At the end of the day or the start of the next workday, regroup, review results, and announce which teammates completed the challenge successfully. To make the activity more interactive and fun, you can also have teammates take turns choosing the challenges.
12. Theme Days
Theme Days are a way to bring excitement to a routine remote workweek. You can choose and announce the theme for the day at the online morning work call. Then, teammates can update profile icons and display names to match the theme, display topical Zoom backgrounds, and participate in appropriate activities. For example, if the theme of the day is “around the world,” a teammate named Jack may change his name to Jaques, team members may change Zoom backgrounds to pictures from abroad, and the group may compete in a geography challenge.
For inspiration, check out this list of virtual spirit week ideas.
13. One Goal, One Gratitude
One Goal, One Gratitude is one of the best virtual morning meeting share ideas. In this activity, each attendee takes a turn sharing one daily target, and one thing they are grateful for. For example, “I want to finally finish that article on Zoom fatigue, and I am grateful I have such a great editor.” The exercise reinforces two important healthy work habits, setting clear goals and expressing thankfulness. Plus, the activity offers a chance for peers to praise each other or get input and help from colleagues.
14. Power Hour
Power hours are focused work sessions where teammates work consistently for a full sixty minutes. The group can either focus on a single task, or try to do most tasks possible within the timeframe. The exercise can be a race or a collaborative effort. Similarly, employees could bring their own work to the call, or managers can assign tasks.
Whichever way you structure it, the main goal of the hour is to achieve a workflow and accomplish tasks. This activity can be especially powerful at the start of the work day because it can get momentum that leads to more productivity. To do the power hour, get on camera together, start the clock, and start working. You can set alarms at regular intervals or to signal the time to switch tasks.
15. Employee of the Day
Employee of the day is a way to give praise to outstanding teammates. Employee recognition is a key component of job satisfaction. By spotlighting one team member per meeting, you can create a more rewarding company culture.
Simply shout out the employee, explain the reason for the praise, and give the team a few moments to react and applaud. You can make a certificate or graphic and send a small prize like a digital gift card, and can encourage other employees to give congratulations post-call.
This exercise is a way to give immediate feedback and positive reinforcement for good behavior and performance. The recognition gives employees incentive to keep up the good behavior and gives other teammates standards to strive for.
For similar activities, check out employee of the month ideas.
16. Morning Cartoons
Professionals or not, many teammates are still kids at heart. Morning cartoons are one of the most fun ideas for virtual meeting ideas. Simply ask an employee to come to the call with a cartoon clip to share, one minute or less. Then, have the presenter play the video via screen share. Team members can also share cartoon clips and comics via Slack thread.
17. Wake-Up Playlist
Wake-Up playlists serve as morning mood boosters as well as getting-to-know you activities. For each meeting, assign a team member to make a music mix. At the beginning of the call, the DJ of the day shares the Spotify or YouTube link with the group. You can play the soundtrack in the background of the meeting, or encourage team members to listen to the list throughout the day.
You could also create a collaborative playlist where each team member contributes one song. The playlists can have a theme such as “concentration,” or “energy.” For morning meetings, the songs should be upbeat to wake the group up and inspire employees to get to work.
18. Coffee Club
Coffee club is one of the most fun virtual morning meeting ideas for adults. This activity turns morning meetings into a virtual coffee tasting class. You can either taste multiple blends of coffee over the course of one meeting, or feature a different brew every call. You could even whip up fancy coffee drinks together.
The tasting acts as an icebreaker activity that helps the group connect before getting down to business.
You could also do a hosted virtual coffee class.
Pro tip: Send the blends to teammates directly, enroll employees in a coffee subscription box, or reimburse the costs of purchasing a drink from a cafe.
19. Pajama Costume Contest
Pajama costume contests are fun activities for remote morning meetings. Before coming to the call, attendees put on their most eccentric sleeping attre. Then, team members take turns showing off the outfits. Crazy prints, stuffed animal slippers, and eccentric eye masks can all win contestants bonus points.
At the end of the fashion show, participants vote on the best dressed attendees, using the polling feature. You can also hold the contest by asking contestants to upload photos to a Slack thread, shared photo album, or social media, and asking viewers to vote via likes. At the end of the activity, name a winner and send a reward.
Check out this guide to virtual costume contests.
20. This or That? AM Edition
This or That is a game that asks players to choose between similar choices. The game moves quickly and does not require much thought, which makes it an ideal warmup activity for early morning meetings.
Here are some morning-themed This or That prompts:
- Wake up right away or hit snooze?
- Rise early or sleep late?
- Eggs or pancakes?
- Bacon or sausage?
- Bagel or toast?
- Coffee or tea?
- Orange juice or apple juice?
- Read the paper or watch TV?
- Sweet breakfast or savory breakfast?
- Shower at night or in the morning?
Check out the full list of This or That questions.
21. Never Have I Ever in the Morning
Never Have I Ever is a game that gets players to fess up to questionable behavior. Each participant takes a turn sharing a statement that starts with Never Have I Ever…. followed by an action. Players start with ten fingers up, and must lower a finger every time a description applies. Participants may also ask other players to elaborate and explain an act.
Here are some examples:
- Overslept and missed a morning meeting
- Ate pizza for breakfast
- Woken up a partner because I didn’t want to be awake alone
- Done something before everyone else woke up
- Hit snooze more than 5 times in a row
- Skipped a shower and gone to work
- Ate only the marshmallows out of the Lucky Charms box
- Had bad morning breath
- Called in sick because I wanted to keep sleeping
- Sleep-walked through my morning routine
Check out more fun question games to play in groups.
Conclusion
Morning meetings are tough for early risers. However, careful planning and fun games and connection activities can energize employees and start the workday on a positive note. These upbeat activities are also good ways to warm up school groups and distance learning students.
Next, check out this list of check-in questions, these community building activities and these relationship building games for work.
We also have a list of topics and ideas for team meetings, a list of fun ideas for virtual team meetings, a list of virtual energizers, and a guide on how to make virtual meetings fun.
Angela Robinson