Hello Everyone,

The virtual/hybrid work environment has not done our calendars any favors, has it? We are either back in the office and juggling hybrid/virtual/in-person meetings or we’re at home, begging to jump off a call early for a bio break between eight hour stretches. And yet, there isn’t always a great purpose to every meeting. Did you see that Shopify actually started calculating the cost of meetings?

If I were to say “HERE IS THE SOLUTION!” you would all call me a liar. I do believe, however, that there are two ways to address this issue: the first is through managing the calendar, and the second is through managing the meetings.

Manage the calendar

• Identify what warrants a meeting in your organization. Some examples:
  • Collaboration time
  • 1:1’s/connection with reports
  • Challenging conversations
• Review recurring meetings, and audit:
  • If they continue to be meaningful (and do we need to change the agenda so it is)
  • The attendee list
  • Whether some meetings can fold into one meeting (or if one meeting should be broken out into two)
  • The block of time (are we always running out of time? Or are we generally done early and we chit-chat?)
• Consider “speedy meetings”, where 30 minute meetings are 25 minutes, and 1-hour meetings are 50 minutes.

Create clarity around what is most important right now in your organization and edit meetings to fit those objectives. When calendars reflect true priorities instead of habits, meetings become a tool for progress rather than a drain on time and energy.