Why meetings make me cray-cray!

You open your calendar and see back-to-back meetings.

And instead of thinking about everything you’re going to accomplish, you’re thinking about everything you won’t have time to get done because of them.

• The proposal you need to finish.
• The project that’s waiting for your attention.
• The emails piling up.
• The work that actually requires you to think.

Suddenly, a day that should feel full of opportunity feels like dread.

I hate that feeling.

But what if you could cut the amount of time you spend in meetings by 25%?

Or even in half?

• What would you do with those extra hours?
• How much more actual work could you get through?
• And how different would it feel in the morning to see some breathing room?

I’m not saying that meetings are the problem.

We need them to make decisions, solve problems, collaborate, and keep people moving in the same direction.

The problem is how much time we waste in meetings that run too long, lose focus, or don’t lead to clear next steps.

A good meeting should give you time back, not create more work.

Here are three ways to make that happen.

#1: Know why you’re meeting

Before you put another meeting on the calendar, ask yourself one simple question:

What needs to happen because of this meeting?

Do you need to:

• Make a decision?
• Solve a problem?
• Get input from the team?
• Brainstorm ideas?
• Create alignment around next steps?

If you can’t clearly answer that question, you may not need a meeting.

Maybe you can share the information in an email, a quick message, or a document people can review on their own time.

And yes, this is where an agenda helps.

But an agenda isn’t helpful just because you have one.

A list of seven topics doesn’t make a meeting productive.

Knowing the purpose of the conversation and what you want to walk away with does.

#2: Protect the conversation from going everywhere

You know how this happens.

You’re discussing the timeline for a new project.

Someone mentions that the client still hasn’t approved the budget.

That leads to why approvals always take so long.

Ten minutes later, you’re talking about changing the entire approval process.

Now you’re 20 minutes into a conversation that has absolutely nothing to do with why you scheduled the meeting in the first place.

Meanwhile, everyone is watching the clock.

Staying focused doesn’t mean shutting down good conversation.

It means being intentional about how you spend everyone’s time.

If an important but unrelated issue comes up, capture it and come back to it later.

That’s time you can actually use.

#3: Leave knowing what happens next

This might be the biggest meeting time-waster of all.

You have a great conversation.

Everyone participates. People share ideas.

You leave feeling like the meeting was productive.

And then…nothing happens.

Or three days later, five emails start flying around:

• Who was doing that?
• Did we ever decide?
• When do we need this by?

And before you know it, you’re scheduling another meeting to talk about the thing you already met about.

Before anyone leaves, take two minutes to answer three questions:

1. What did we decide?
2. Who owns what?
3. When does it need to happen?

Those two minutes can save hours of confusion and follow-up later.

The Bottom Line

Meetings aren’t going away.

And they shouldn’t.

But they shouldn’t consume so much of your day that you have to start your actual work when the meetings finally end.

This week, look at your calendar and choose just one recurring meeting.

Ask yourself:

• Does it need to happen?
• Does it need to be this long?
• Does everyone need to be there?
• And could we leave with clearer next steps?

Start by getting a little of your time back.

Because the goal isn’t to have fewer meetings just for the sake of having fewer meetings.

It’s to make sure the time you spend together actually moves the work forward.

Mridu

P.S. If you know you can make better use of your time and energy, check out my training here or explore one-to-one coaching here.