THE CASE: When Meetings Become the Job
Ananya, a product manager at a 100-person startup, tracked her calendar. 23 hours of meetings out of 40 working hours. The remaining 17 hours are fragmented across 30-minute slots between meetings. Her real work—deep thinking, strategy, creative problem-solving—happens after 6 PM. When she asked her manager which meetings could be cancelled, every one was "important." Everyone thinks their meeting is important. Collectively, they're destroying productivity.
The average worker spends 23 hours per week in meetings—a 60% increase from 2013 (Microsoft). 71% of meetings are unproductive (Harvard Business Review). Post-COVID, it's even worse. Hybrid work has created "meeting creep"—more meetings, more fragmented time, lower focus.
The Evidence
23 hours/week average in meetings (Microsoft)
71% of meetings are unproductive (HBR)
62 meetings per month average (Microsoft)
40% productivity loss from context-switching (APA)
The Meeting Audit Framework
Step 1: List Every Recurring Meeting (60 minutes)
Create a spreadsheet of every recurring meeting: Meeting name, frequency (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly), attendees, duration, owner. For a 20-person department, this is typically 30-50 meetings.
Step 2: Ask the Magic Question (2 hours)
For each meeting, ask: "What would break if we didn't have this meeting?"
- Type A: "Something would break" Keep the meeting
- Type B: "Nothing would break, but we'd miss updates" Replace with async (email, Slack doc)
- Type C: "Nothing would break. I don't know why we have it" Cancel immediately
Most meetings are Type B or C.
Step 3: Run the Experiment (ongoing)
Target: Eliminate 30-50% of recurring meetings. For Type B meetings, replace with: Weekly email update (3-5 bullet points), Slack channel with key updates, shared doc where info is posted (people check async), monthly summary instead of weekly meeting. For Type C meetings: Cancel immediately.
Step 4: Implement "No-Meeting Windows" (ongoing)
Examples:
- "No-Meeting Wednesdays": No internal meetings all day
- "Focus Hours": 9-11 AM daily = no meetings
- "Deep Work Days": Friday afternoon = no meetings
Give people uninterrupted blocks for focus work.
The Experiment: "Meeting-Free Wednesday"
For 4 weeks, test: One day per week, zero internal meetings. Preserve external meetings (clients, partners). Measure: Productivity (do people accomplish more?), engagement (does Wednesday feel different?), sentiment ("How productive was your week?" survey). Expected outcome: 20-30% increase in reported productivity, people discover they can do deep work, momentum to eliminate more meetings.
Sources & References
- Newport, Cal. Deep Work. Grand Central Publishing, 2016.
- Gerber, Michael E. The E-Myth Revisited. HarperCollins, 2014.
- Collins, Jim. Good to Great. HarperBusiness, 2001.
- Microsoft. Work Trend Index. 2023.
Key Takeaways
- Your calendar is a log of your interruptions, not your priorities
- Ask "What would break?" to ruthlessly audit meetings
- Replace update meetings with async communication
- Protect focus time with No-Meeting windows
- The most productive people aren't in the most meetings—they have the most uninterrupted time