How to reduce time spent in meetings every week

In a recent survey by Reclaim AI in October 2022, 2 out of 3 respondents said that they do not have enough time for focus work, and half of respondents said they have too many meetings.?

We hear it all the time from folks that they’re tired of having their calendar dictate their day. Lots of people share with us that they’re stuck in back-to-back meetings most days, leaving little to no time for them to do any real work, which continues to pile up after each meeting.?

So, what can you do about it?

First, have a meeting audit.

• Look through your calendars and review any recurring meetings that you have. Is it still needed? Sometimes, the reason we set up those recurring meetings are no longer relevant or the recurring meetings are no longer the right channel to address that particular challenge. If you think the recurring meetings are still needed, then see if you can reduce the length and/or the frequency of those meetings.?
• Do you have any meetings in your calendar that involve more than 7 people? In an hour long meeting, a meeting of 7 people means each person has just over 8.5 minutes to contribute. Any meeting with over 7 people has a diminishing chance of being productive. Is your presence truly required at those meetings? If not, see our previous article for some scripts to decline those invites.?

Book recurring focus time in your calendar every week. If your organization has subscribed to Microsoft Viva Insights, take advantage of the focus mode function so focus time is automatically booked in advance around meeting times for you. Depending on the nature of your work, we recommend at least 10-14 hours of focus time a week.

Lastly, initiate a discussion at your next team meeting about how you can work together to reduce meeting times and protect focus time. “I’d like to have a discussion about how we can protect focus time for each other as a team so we can move these priorities forward. I have some ideas and would love to hear your thoughts on what you think might work for us”.

We hope that these tips are helpful for you!