Tips for Balancing Meeting Frequency and Productivity

An Insight into Managing Meeting-Intensive Days Recently, I had an enlightening 1:1 with one of our young designers. They asked, "After a day filled with back-to-back meetings, I'm exhausted. How do you handle this, given most of your days are meeting-heavy?" This scenario is common for many of us managing large teams and products. Here are some strategies I've developed to thrive when meetings dominate your schedule: 1. Mindset Shift: Recognize that meetings are work too, especially in large organizations. As a young designer, I viewed meetings as productivity thieves. Now I understand they're integral to the work process. 2. Calendar Mastery: I structure my day via my calendar, scheduling focus times, breaks, and meetings. I batch tasks and allocate them to ensure time-sensitive work gets done. 3. Pomodoro Technique: I aim for 24 pomodoros daily, equating to 12 hours of intense work. This includes writing, thinking, conversations, tasks, and team interactions. On lower-energy days, I listen to my body and adjust accordingly. 4. Micro-Breaks: Between meetings, I take 3-minute rejuvenation breaks. My toolkit includes: - Breathwork (sukha kriya, nadhi shuddi, 4-2-5-2 breathing with mudras) - Quick exercises (e.g., a set of squats) - Mindfulness practices (breath awareness meditation) - Short walks (using a walk pad or stepping outside) 5. Deep Listening: During meetings, I practice full engagement without multitasking. If a meeting doesn't align with my priorities, I respectfully decline or leave, communicating my reasons authentically. 6. Efficient Follow-up: I rarely revisit recordings, treating them as equivalent to attending meetings. When necessary, I schedule dedicated time for this. 7. Comprehensive Note-taking: I document discussions systematically, which helps track learning and identify recurring themes for myself and others. 8. Operational Rigor: I maintain high standards in self-management and task execution. This operational excellence keeps work flowing smoothly and maintains quality. These practices have transformed how I navigate meeting-intensive days, balancing productivity with well-being. What strategies do you employ to manage your energy during meeting-heavy periods? I'd love to hear your insights! #workdesign

No matter what your 2025 goals are, there’s one thing that you should do at the start of the year if you want to be productive… Clean up your calendar!! 📅 If you don’t have control over your calendar, it’s nearly impossible to have control over your work and, therefore, your objectives. I am a firm believer that, even as a busy exec, you should have a good chunk of your week that is open by default. You need to have spare capacity built into your working system. For example, if an unexpected, exciting initiative comes up, you need to have the freedom to dedicate a couple of hours to it — otherwise it’ll get pushed down the road, and never get done. Similarly if a huge fire appears - you need to be able to dedicate some time ASAP to try to fix it. Over time, calendars naturally fill up — leaving you with less and less available hours — and it’s therefore important to regularly revisit your calendar, assess the lay of the land and restructure your week. Everyone is different - but the ideal end state for me is having a big chunk of free time every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. That way I always know that I can work on something within ~24hrs if I need to. To help me get there - here are four things I do: 1. DELETE SOME MEETINGS ENTIRELY This can be difficult but usually I have at least 1 or 2 meetings that can be cut completely. Be considered but ruthless here — it’s amazing how often other people will be thrilled to have the meeting cancelled. 2. REDUCE THE CADENCE OF SOME MEETING It can be easy to settle into a routine of weekly calls, but are they always necessary? Review your recurring meetings and identify those that could be less frequent. Instead of meeting every week, consider switching to fortnightly meetings (or move from fortnightly to monthly). You can supplement this with email/Loom/Slack updates in between if useful. 3. SHORTEN MEETINGS If you can shorten 4 weekly calls by 15 minutes at the start of the year, you’ve bought yourself an extra hour per week, or ~48 hours over the year. That's a whole extra week of work 🤯 4. CLUSTER MEETINGS This approach is often overlooked. If you’re unable to cut or shorten meetings, spend time re-working your schedule so that your meetings are all bunched together. You’ll suddenly see big patches of daylight appear in your calendar — in which you can do deep, focused work without constantly having to interrupt your flow to hop on a Zoom call. Calendar hygiene may seem super simple and obvious to some, but it’s amazing how many people neglect to do it and lose control of their weeks, months and, ultimately, years. This is some that I try to tidy up every 6 months or so as calendars naturally evolve to be messy. If you have any other top tips for calendar management, let me know! 👂

We've all been there—calendar packed, back-to-back meetings, and by the end of the day, you wonder: "Did I really get anything done today?" It's a modern-day dilemma that can sap the energy of even the most focused professionals. Here’s how I tackle it: ⚡ **Guard your prime time**: Block off your most productive hours each day for deep, uninterrupted work. Meetings can wait. 🛠️ **Create an 'Urgent vs. Important' matrix**: Before you accept a meeting, ask: Is this mission-critical, or could it be addressed another way? Prioritize time for high-value activities that align with your goals. 💬 **Shorten your meetings**: Instead of defaulting to an hour, aim for 15-30 minutes and stay laser-focused on the agenda. ⛔ **Say no (gracefully)**: You don’t have to be in every conversation. Set boundaries. If your presence isn’t crucial, politely decline. 💡 **Leverage async tools**: If a quick update suffices, use email, Teams, or a shared document. Not every discussion requires a live meeting. 📅 **Set specific meeting days**: Designate a couple of days for calls and free the rest for execution time. 📈 **Hold 'walking meetings'**: Got a catch-up or status update? Take it on the go. It’ll boost your energy and creativity. 👥 **Bundle similar meetings together**: Consolidate team meetings, 1:1s, and quick syncs into one focused block. 📝 **Have a clear agenda and outcome**: Every meeting should have a purpose. If not, reconsider whether it’s necessary. Keep your focus on where it really matters. Meetings shouldn’t prevent you from doing what you’re best at: making an impact! How do YOU ensure meetings don’t consume your day? #ProductivityHacks #MeetingManagement #FocusTime #TimeManagement #Efficiency #LeadershipTips #WorkSmarter #SalesSuccess #ProductiveMindset

Most meetings suck - suck time, energy, and productivity. I know I'm not alone in being over the endless meeting workday. For startups (or anyone building), time is the most precious resource. If you're always meeting, when do you have time to actually build the thing? It's time to challenge the status quo and reimagine our meeting culture. And not just because it’s a driving culprit behind Sunday Scaries! Here's why: 💸 A Doodle study found pointless meetings cost U.S. businesses $399 billion in 2019. How much runway are you burning in conference rooms? 📆 Atlassian reports employees spend 31 hours monthly in unproductive meetings. That's four workdays lost! 😨 Harvard Business Review research shows 65% of senior managers say meetings keep them from completing work. In startups, that's innovation suicide. ⏱️ According to Korn Ferry, 71% of professionals lose time weekly due to unnecessary meetings. Can you afford this when racing for product-market fit? 😴 Atlassian's survey revealed 91% of employees daydream during meetings, 39% have fallen asleep. How can you disrupt markets with a snoozing team? 👀 Doodle found only 50% of meeting time is spent engaging with content. Would you accept this from your code? It's time for a radical shift. Here are some ideas we’ve been kicking around: ⏳ Implement a "Meeting Budget": Allocate a fixed amount of time for meetings each week. Once it's gone, it's gone. This forces prioritization and efficiency. 🍕 "Two-Pizza Rule": If two pizzas can't feed the group, the meeting's too large. Smaller groups tend to be more focused and decisive. 💻 Smarter Async Communication: Use tools to determine what needs real-time interaction. If a topic requires more than 6 Slack exchanges, it might be time for a quick sync. 🙅🏻♀️ "No-Meeting Days": Designate specific days for deep work, free from interruptions. This can significantly boost productivity and creative output. 📋 Use POP Agenda: This is a game-changer for meeting efficiency. Here's how it works: - Purpose: Clearly state why you're meeting. Is it for decision-making, brainstorming, or alignment? - Outcomes: Define 2-3 specific results you need by the end of the meeting. - Process: Outline how you'll use the time to achieve those outcomes. POP keeps everyone focused and gives permission to redirect when discussions stray. It works for everything from quick check-ins to marathon brainstorming sessions. (One of my favorite frameworks I’ve ever used!) Let's stop sucking the life out of our organizations with needless meetings. The future of innovation depends on it. How has your team cut meeting fat and started sprinting faster?

Anyone else suffer from meeting overload? It’s a big deal. Simply put too many meetings means less time available for actual work, plus constantly attending meetings can be mentally draining, and often they simply are not required to accomplish the agenda items. At the same time sometimes it’s unavoidable. No matter where you are in your career, here are a few ways that I tackle this topic so that I can be my best and hold myself accountable to how my time is spent. I take 15 minutes every Friday to look at the week ahead and what is on my calendar. I follow these tips to ensure what is on the calendar should be and that I’m prepared. It ensures that I have a relevant and focused communications approach, and enables me to focus on optimizing productivity, outcomes and impact. 1. Review the meeting agenda. If there’s no agenda I send an email asking for one so you know exactly what you need to prepare for, and can ensure your time is correctly prioritized. You may discover you’re actually not the correct person to even attend. If it’s your meeting, set an agenda because accountability goes both ways. 2. Define desired outcomes. What do you want/need from the meeting to enable you to move forward? Be clear about it with participants so you can work collaboratively towards the goal in the time allotted. 3. Confirm you need the meeting. Meetings should be used for difficult or complex discussions, relationship building, and other topics that can get lost in text-based exchanges. A lot of times though we schedule meetings that we don’t actually require a meeting to accomplish the task at hand. Give ourselves and others back time and get the work done without that meeting. 4. Shorten the meeting duration. Can you cut 15 minutes off your meeting? How about 5? I cut 15 minutes off some of my recurring meetings a month ago. That’s 3 hours back in a week I now have to redirect to high impact work. While you’re at it, do you even need all those recurring meetings? It’s never too early for a calendar spring cleaning. 5. Use meetings for discussion topics, not FYIs. I save a lot of time here. We don’t need to speak to go through FYIs (!) 6. Send a pre-read. The best meetings are when we all prepare for a meaningful conversation. If the topic is a meaty one, send a pre-read so participants arrive with a common foundation on the topic and you can all jump straight into the discussion and objectives at hand. 7. Decline a meeting. There’s nothing wrong with declining. Perhaps you’re not the right person to attend, or there is already another team member participating, or you don’t have bandwidth to prepare. Whatever the reason, saying no is ok. What actions do you take to ensure the meetings on your calendar are where you should spend your time? It’s a big topic that we can all benefit from, please share your tips in the comments ⤵️ #careertips #productivity #futureofwork

Have you ever left a meeting wondering why it was even held? Or felt like you’re drowning in back-to-back virtual meetings? I’ll admit—I’ve been there. Early in the pandemic, I tracked my schedule for three weeks: 👉 140 meetings total 👉 46 per week 👉 9+ every single day And here’s the tough part: too many failed to drive results. I remember closing my laptop at night completely drained, asking myself: Was any of that time truly valuable? Since Covid, hybrid work has amplified this. Not being physically seen in the office has created pressure for more virtual meetings—as if “being on screen” equals leadership. But visibility doesn’t equal productivity. 📊 Research backs it up: • Time in meetings has risen 50% since the pandemic. • Employees now spend 22+ hours a week in them. • 71% of meetings are viewed as unproductive. • Only 30–35% actually use best practices. Here’s what shifted things for me: I stopped letting meetings happen by default and started running them by design. Whether leading a Fortune 100 transformation or solving a tough business challenge, the most impactful meetings I’ve experienced are built around 4 questions: 1️⃣ Purpose – Are we informing, deciding, or aligning? The agenda must center on one purpose. 2️⃣ Participation – Who really needs to be there? Balance voices. Share agenda + pre-reads 24 hrs in advance. 3️⃣ Outcomes – What does success look like? Define takeaways, next steps, accountability. 4️⃣ Research – What does the audience need to hear or learn to achieve the purpose? Without connecting content to strategy, meetings fall flat. Done right, effective meetings can cut meeting time by 30%. That’s 5–6 hours back for a manager spending 20 hours a week in them. 🔎 My challenge to you: Track your meetings this week. How many truly answer these 4 questions? Because every meeting is either moving your organization forward—or backward. The choice happens before anyone enters the room.

As CPO, I went where my calendar dictated. Then I’m sneaking glances at my email and Slack, and growing more stressed at more work accruing elsewhere. I was reactive. Each meeting spawned more follow-up meetings because I wasn't well prepared, or the right people were not present. To truly spend most of my time on my top priorities: 1️⃣ Make a top-down view of time spent that reflects your P0/P1’s. What initiatives, decisions, or strategies are they responsible for driving? 2️⃣ Divide your list into three sections: P0’s (only I can do), P1 (critical priorities that I cannot miss), and P2 (important to get done). 3️⃣ Assign a percentage of your time to each section: If your time spent reflects your priorities, this is what it should look like in aggregate. 4️⃣ Ruthlessly clean your next month of meetings. Delegate where you are not critical. Combine similar conversations. Shorten or reduce meeting frequency. Delete…and ask for forgiveness — because you’ll end up asking for it anyway on the day when you are triple-booked. Remember, if you are struggling with time management, the first step is not to open your calendar to ad hoc edit, but to map out your true priorities to set a strong foundation for your adjustments. 

Before you set that out-of-office responder, don’t forget to do this: Cancel all your recurring meetings starting January 1. Worried this will freak everyone out? It won’t, if you’re clear and proactive. Let stakeholders know you’re refreshing your calendar. Reassure your team: key meetings (like 1:1s) will return. Here’s the payoff: A blank slate gives you the space to focus on what matters most. When you come back, rebuild wisely: ↳ Add back only meetings that drive real value. ↳ Cut the rest (or send someone else). ↳ Reduce the frequency of those that have to stay. Combine where you can. I did this exercise before my maternity leave and realized it’s a powerful strategy reset. As a product leader and a mom, your time is precious. You can’t afford to let it be filled by default. Start the year in control of your time and on your terms.

I used to believe more hours = more productivity. I was wrong. I used to be a slave to my to-do list, constantly looking for “more hours”. But, as Sahil Bloom shows us so wonderfully in this excerpt from his new book, 'The 5 Types of Wealth'... You don’t need more hours. You need better balance. Because not all time is created equal. Here's an overview of the four types of professional time (courtesy of Sahil)  and how you can use this wisdom to better structure your days: 🔴 Management Time – Meetings, emails, coordination. 🟢 Creation Time – Deep work, building, producing. 🔵 Consumption Time – Learning, reading, listening. 🟡 Ideation Time – Thinking, brainstorming, strategizing. When you mismanage these, your days feel chaotic. When you balance them, your work (and life) flow. I’ve snapped a photo from Sahil’s book so you can visually see how these four categories can bring better balance to your week. The main point is to start being more intentional about how you use your time, and group similar activities together. Here's how I've applied some of these lessons in my own life  (and how you can too): ✅ Stop checking your email in the morning I used to start my day in my inbox. But you can't plan your days around other people’s priorities. Spend the first 90 minutes each day in deep work before even glancing at your email. ✅ Create “meeting-free” days Back-to-back meetings kill focus. Implement at least one no-meeting day each week, reserving that time instead for your biggest needle-movers. ✅ Batch small tasks together Multitasking is a massive productivity killer. Instead of endlessly switching between small tasks, I now stack my admin work into a defined 30-minute block. Less task switching + more focus = greater output. ✅ Schedule time to think Yes, there is such a thing as “time to think”! Set aside at least 30 minutes of screen-free time each day. Your best ideas often come when you're by yourself. ✅ “Audit” your time every week I used to pack my weeks blindly. Now, I review where I'm spending my time and adjust the split, depending on my priorities. If you see yourself spending too much time in one category, you may need to rebalance. Look at your week. What dominates your schedule? Are you making real progress or are you just keeping busy? And if you need a blueprint for mastering your time - as well as the social, mental, physical, and financial aspects of your life - then Sahil’s new book 'The 5 Types of Wealth' is an absolute must-read. Order it here and take charge of your life: https://lnkd.in/dnPpts2e ⏳ Remember, time is your most precious asset. Once spent, you can never earn it back. So take control and make it count.

I hate most meetings. Not people. Meetings. Here’s the truth: 90% of the ones I’ve sat in could’ve been handled with a voice note, email, Slack, or text. Instead, we waste 45 minutes talking about Bali trips when the actual problem takes 5 minutes to solve. So I started cutting them. Updates go on WhatsApp/Slack. Feedback via voice notes. Calls only when it’s sensitive or need an urgent reply. Result? I saved 10-15 hours a week and had more brainpower left for actual strategy, not “pretend productivity.” But let’s be real, you can’t kill all meetings. Some are necessary. Just not 60 minutes long with 12 people who don’t need to be there. If it matters, keep it short. Get to the point. Then get back to building. My framework now: 📅 Meetings = use them to connect, not to repeat what could’ve been emailed 📞 Calls = sensitive + urgent conversations 🗣 Voice notes = context + updates 💬 Email/text = everything else Meetings aren’t evil. Bloated, drawn-out meetings are. We’ve got the tools. We just need the discipline. Who else is ready to push back on the calendar clutter? #Productivity #BusinessMeetings #TimeSaving