The Trick To Reducing Unnecessary Meetings

It’s Monday morning, and you’re gearing up for a big week. You have a lot to accomplish, and your to-do list is long. First things first — check your calendar to get everything organized. And that’s when you feel your energy deflate. Meetings, meetings, meetings. Every day is peppered with them, leaving very few blocks of time for deep work.

Are they all necessary? Definitely not. Is this the norm? Unfortunately, yes. Meetings are the status quo in the corporate world. They’re also one of the biggest pain points for team members and leaders alike.

The Problem With Meetings

Many, if not most, meetings are unnecessary. They drag on and on. Nothing gets accomplished. They could have been an email. And all that time wasted disrupts productivity and slows real progress.

The problem has only gotten worse with the rise of remote work. Leaders and team members are scheduling more meetings than ever because they’re concerned about the lack of face time inherent to co-located work. While communication does take more intention in remote environments, meetings aren’t always the answer.

The point of most meetings is to communicate, collaborate, and clarify information. They offer a defined space and time to make decisions and offer feedback. These are important tasks for progress, but they don’t require meetings nearly as often as people think.

How to Reduce Unnecessary Meetings

Unnecessary meetings are a drain on time, energy, and resources. There are best practices to follow to make sure your meetings don’t suck, but let’s take it a step further and reduce the number of meetings altogether. Here’s how to have fewer meetings:

“No Meeting” Days

Scheduling some meetings here and there is inevitable. Enduring them every day of the week is not. Reduce unnecessary meetings by creating a “no meeting” policy on certain days. Mondays and Fridays, for example — the days people are trying to catch up and wrap up, respectively. This way, your team members (and your fellow leaders) can count on two uninterrupted days to commit to deep work.

Set Meeting Standards

Create a checklist that people must follow before they ever schedule a meeting. If created strategically, checklists can define the purpose of meetings, who should attend, and what the meeting should accomplish. Even better, they’ll reveal whether the meeting is necessary in the first place. This policy may be time-consuming for the meeting scheduler, but it’s an important investment. After all, if someone can’t clearly articulate the purpose and parameters of a proposed meeting, the meeting isn’t ready to be held. (Owl Labs published a helpful meeting checklist that I highly recommend.)

Invite Fewer People

If a meeting is necessary, inviting 50 people is not (in most cases). Keep your invite list to the bare minimum to protect as many team members’ schedules as possible. If you can’t concisely explain why an employee should be included, don’t invite them. To maintain clarity, record meetings and save them in an accessible location, or ask one team member to take notes and save them with your other documentation. That way, other team members can access the information when they have time and energy.

Use Collaboration Software

There’s no shortage of collaboration software these days, from Slack to Trello to Jira. Make good use of them to reduce unnecessary meetings. They’ll allow your team to communicate asynchronously, keeping everyone up-to-date in real time, no meetings needed. Plus, unlike live meetings, these tools make it easy to refer back to notes and updates throughout the day.

Ditch (Most) Recurring Meetings

Aside from your regular 1:1s with team members — which are imperative for strong leadership — make recurring meetings a thing of the past. All-hands, team touch-bases, and more: Most of these meetings have been on the calendar for so long that no one questions them, even if they don’t accomplish anything. Audit your company calendar and analyze any recurring meetings. You’ll probably find that most of them can be eliminated or replaced with a weekly Slack update.

Practice Written Communication

Many people rely on meetings because talking out loud is easier than writing information in an articulate, organized, and concise manner. Busy leaders are especially guilty of this, preferring to hop on a Zoom call and talk through their thoughts instead of spending time on a memo or email. But written communication is a key career skill, especially in remote working environments. Encourage everyone at your organization to start practicing and honing their writing skills. You can even ask one of your staff writers to train the rest of the team, if helpful. Writing has many benefits. It forces you to clearly define your thoughts, and it’s easier to share and revisit multiple times.

Make Unnecessary Meetings Obsolete

Flexible and/or remote work is the way of the future, and these new norms simply aren’t conducive to holding meeting after meeting. People work best on their own time, and meetings will always disrupt someone’s most productive hour.

Stay asynchronous as much as possible by reducing unnecessary meetings at your organization. Utilize email, chat, and documentation, which protect everyone’s time and focus more than live calls. When a meeting can’t be avoided, don’t schedule it until you have clarity on its purpose and intended outcome, and only invite a few team members.

Your team will thank you. Your schedule will suddenly feel wide open. And your to-do list will be manageable for the first time in years.