Why I Cancelled 180 Meetings This Month - Kill the Meeting Monster

I Cancelled 180 Meetings This Month

It’s shocking how we are enslaved by meetings. Boss meetings. Update meetings. FYI meetings. Please come attend and show your face meetings. No wonder work life balance is a mess. No wonder engagement during this time is low. No wonder work always feels like it’s not done yet.

How do we kill the meeting monster. I tried this month the active effort of finding and deleting every meeting where I was not required or which I did not require.

Incredibly I cancelled 180 meetings- saving approximately 200 hours of time which is equal to 20 working days of working time ( almost the full month) or equal to 4 weekends of free time or time enough to run a few full marathons or time enough to watch every new net flix series.

How is it possible and how can you do the same ?

1.     First Habit is to spend 15 minutes on Sunday evening to achieve “CALENDER FREEDOM”. Your goal is to delete atleast 5 meetings a week to start with. Eventually you will raise this goal to 7 / 10 / 15 meetings to be cancelled. Go find the least useful meetings to cancel every week and free your calender to do what matters. Block this time in your calender to free your calender.

2.     Second Habit is to delete all FYI updates and meetings where merely your presence is asked for with no participation. You can usually get the meeting materials or presentation or video later. I deleted 40 such meetings this month. Some were generic updates on e commerce ( I can google it), some updates on 2021 innovations ( I can get the presentation and read up) or invitations to listen to a de cluttering guru ( I need to de clutter my mind).

3.     Third Habit is to cut all “update meeting” frequency by half. Daily to 2X a week. Weekly to fortnightly. Fortnighly to monthly. If you are the organizer cut it yourself. If you are a participant tell the organizer you will join alternate sessions or ask for “what is expected from me” and send it on mail or call the individual concerned.

4.     Fourth Habit is to cut meeting timings – You should not need more than an hour to do anything. Ideally 30 min. Try moving the meeting average from 60 min to 45 min. then to 30min. This week I will try 15 min meetings.

5.     Important Stakeholder Meeting a.k.a Darbar ( or royal court where the emperor sits on a throne and most courtiers spend time without outcome ) – if you have a senior stakeholder who wants an update on an issue call them directly or fix time 1-1 or send them an email update. You will find you do not need to call 10 other people to settle the issue.

6.     Don’t do what others can – if there are team mates better suited to handle an agenda they should. If you are unsure whether they can help them prepare well and let them handle. You help them grow and learn as you do so.

The time you liberate is the time for big rocks. For strategic planning. For new ideas and innovations. For meeting customers. For solving complex problems. For your better half and your kids. For your favourite net flix show ( yes it’s ok to relax). For sports and running.

Free your time. Cut useless meetings. Cut less useful meetings. Kill the meeting monster.

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