Successfully Reduce Unnecessary Meetings with These Tips

Harvard Business Review (HBR) recently published fascinating insights around hybrid work and its impact on meetings, namely:

• “No-participation rates” for small group meetings increased in Q1 2023 over Q1 2022, meaning a higher number of muted participants for the entirety of a meeting 
• Virtual meeting attendees enabled their cameras less often in Q1 2023 than in Q1 2022
• Both metrics correlate with retention rates, suggesting relationships worth exploring between meeting modality and employee engagement 

What does this research signal? Hybrid work has (and will continue) to impact workplace meeting cultures. As cultures change, weeding out unnecessary meetings will become increasingly important to create more space for meaningful work. 

In this post, we’ll discuss the impact of unnecessary meetings, provide examples, and discuss strategies for cutting back without causing collaboration issues.

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The impact of unnecessary meetings on productivity

There’s an unsurprising connection between unnecessary meetings and productivity. According to Slack, on average, desk workers say two hours per day in meetings is their tipping point. Meeting time after the two-hour mark makes workers feel overburdened by meetings. 

Unnecessary meetings become more detrimental for leaders. As reported in Asana’s Anatomy of Work Report 2023, those in leadership positions spend an average of 3.6 hours per week in unnecessary meetings. If we multiply that weekly amount by the 52-week calendar year, they could spend around 187 hours annually on more impactful deep work but are stuck in unnecessary meetings instead. The same Asana report revealed that executives are 30% more likely than the average knowledge worker to miss deadlines due to too many meetings. 

Unproductive meetings tend to spiral out of control. In Workplace Woes: Meetings Edition, Atlassian reported that 77% of knowledge workers surveyed said they frequently attend meetings that end in a decision to schedule a follow-up meeting. Burdensome meeting cultures force people to work overtime to get their work done. In the same research, 51% of people surveyed regularly work overtime a few days per week due to meeting overload. 

The research is clear. Unnecessary meetings lead to:

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• Feeling burdened 
• Wasting time 
• More meetings that hurt productivity
• Workplace responsibilities seeping into non-working hours

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Examples of unnecessary meetings

Meetings are valuable under the right conditions, but some are inherently more unnecessary than others. The following types of meetings are good starting points for reclaiming your workday. 

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Pre-meeting meetings 

Have you ever had a colleague schedule a group meeting and then contact you separately to schedule a pre-meeting sync? While some level of pre-planning for a meeting is necessary, it’s likely unnecessary for you to schedule a meeting to discuss an upcoming one. 

This is one of the most common ways meetings sprawl across calendars. Instead of a pre-meeting sync, consider collaborating asynchronously on meeting preparation materials and resources. That could mean sharing a meeting agenda in Google Docs, sending a Loom video with explanatory guidance, or writing an effective email linking to pre-meeting actions and reading materials. 

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Agendaless meetings

Undoubtedly, meetings without clear agendas are unnecessary. If you ask people to share their limited time to join a meeting, providing an agenda to make the best use of your time together is considerate. Without an agenda, conversations can (and will) derail, achieving desired outcomes is more challenging, and people leave feeling frustrated and annoyed. 

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Status update meetings

You’ve probably seen plenty of “That meeting could’ve been an email” memes and GIFs. While many people mock workplace meeting culture, meetings with information that could have been sent via email (like status updates and readouts) are unnecessary. Any meeting in which the organizer or another attendee does most of the speaking without active participation from the rest of the group is unneeded. 

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Strategies to reduce unnecessary meetings

Reducing the number of unnecessary meetings is a strategic effort that requires intentional consideration and planning. It’s not just about clearing your calendar and starting over. Some meetings are essential, necessary, and valuable, so we must strike the right balance. Here are some strategies to help you identify and reduce unnecessary organizational meetings. 

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Audit your meetings 

Consider regularly auditing your meetings (one-on-ones, check-ins, team meetings, all-hands, cross-team syncs, project touch bases, etc.). You can sense when a meeting is no longer working. But auditing your meetings forces you to take a close look at your calendar and answer questions like:

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• Does this meeting have a clear purpose? 
• Do I still find the structure of this meeting valuable? 
• Is this meeting a good use of my time? 
• Do I need to collect feedback from other attendees to decide if we should continue this meeting? 

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If you want an easy place to start, evaluate your recurring meetings. The best part about recurring meetings is that they’re on our calendars and don’t require us to send meeting invites constantly. The worst part is that we’re quick to make them habitual and long-lasting, even after becoming less beneficial or impactful. 

Work cultures, priorities, and teams change constantly. Your meetings should adapt and change to meet evolving team and business needs. Evaluate the recurring meetings on your calendar, and if you choose to keep them, consider setting an end date. A quarterly or six-month timeframe will encourage you to reevaluate your meetings more frequently. 

Our CEO, Matt Martin, recently discussed with Business Insider how common it is for calendars to overgrow with meetings throughout the year. Tim Paradis wrote, “Martin noted that some organizations make an effort at the start of a year to cut out superfluous get-togethers. But meetings often creep back. And because some businesses are cyclical, our calendars can fill up as the workload increases, he said.”

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Establish a meeting-free day 

More organizations are experimenting with no-meeting days. Asana adopted “No Meeting Wednesdays” (NMW) over ten years ago. Additionally, Slack instituted a no-meeting Focus Friday culture, allowing team members to cancel internal meetings and turn off notifications.

While there are some debates about whether no-meeting days are effective (If we have a no-meeting day, we fill the other workdays with those meetings, right?), it’s a strategy worth considering. 

Establishing a no-meeting day alone isn’t enough, as it will likely lead to more meetings on other workdays. However, a no-meeting day could be helpful with the right tools, such as better asynchronous communication and effective workload prioritization. 

With different ways to continue driving work forward, a no-meeting day can encourage team members to ask, “Is this topic worthy of the limited number of meeting hours I can offer this week?” 

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Require agendas

Missing agendas are a significant meeting red flag. Give your team members permission to decline meetings without agendas and walk the talk. If a meeting organizer hasn’t prepared an agenda, the meeting may be unnecessary, or perhaps it's not the right time to meet. Requiring clear agendas and creating a culture encouraging declining unstructured meetings can help weed out unnecessary meetings that waste time. Bonus points if you add the agenda to your meeting invitation for easy reference. 

In addition to requiring agendas, determine who will capture meeting notes and action items. The most productive meetings have a solid structure from start to finish, ensuring attendees are well-informed, aligned, and knowledgeable about what to expect next. 

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Use asynchronous communication

Incorporating async communication is a time management strategy that can boost employee productivity. Meetings allow us to connect in real-time, in person, or virtually via Zoom, which is necessary in some contexts. However, async communication can be just as effective (if not more). These methods allow message recipients to access the information on their own time. They also give people time to absorb information and engage or participate thoughtfully after considering it. 

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Meeting alternatives to try

Meetings are a collaboration tool, but plenty of other tools are in the toolbox. You don’t have to choose just one. Try swapping a meeting with one of these alternatives when it makes sense. 

Send a pre-recorded video 

A pre-recorded video works well if you need to share information that requires more than a written explanation. With a tool like Loom, you can share your screen and record yourself simultaneously, allowing you to make your recordings more personal. 

Draft a compelling and well-written email 

Emails get a bad rap, but when written well, they can serve as a great meeting alternative. With brevity, helpful attachments, and clear asks, emails work well because people can read and refer back to them. Consider working with your team to create email templates that work best for your group to simplify your workflows. 

Use chat tools (and automation) 

A “quick” sync, like 15-minute daily standups, could be conducted asynchronously with a tool like Slack and a standup Slackbot. This alternative prioritizes asynchronous communication and automation, removing meeting coordination and facilitation from the organizer’s plate. 

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Measuring the effectiveness of reduced meetings

If you want to reduce the number of meetings on your calendar and ensure you are on the right track, consider measuring the effectiveness of your meeting changes. You might ask yourself (and others) questions like:

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• Am I receiving the information I need to do my work? 
• Are other meeting attendees receiving the information they need?
• Are there any gaps in our new process?
• Does this cadence feel like it’s working better? 
• Do I have more time for deep work? 
• Are our remaining meetings more focused and productive? 
• Do we hear more voices during meetings? 

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How Clockwise helps companies improve meeting culture

At Clockwise, we’re on a mission to help you make time for what matters most. Clockwise has helped companies like Betterment and Atlassian improve their meeting cultures while opening up more time for deep work.  

With Clockwise, users can:

• Enable flexible meetings, allowing Clockwise to move them to the optimal time while creating Focus Time, resolving conflicts, and respecting your workday preferences (a win-win for you and your entire company!)
• Take advantage of smart meeting breaks for a few minutes to recharge between long blocks of meetings 
• Establish a no-meeting day to create and protect a day for deep work 
• Review their team and individual analytics to understand how much time they spend in meetings 
• Use Clockwise AI Scheduler to schedule and update meetings without forcing you or other attendees to bend on your workday preferences 

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These features can help you and your team freshen up your meeting hygiene and shift toward a future with fewer meetings. Sign up for Clockwise.