How many meetings do you attend each week? Any idea how many of those could have been avoided by sending an email or just weren’t necessary at all? Well, according to a Harvard Business Review article, The Psychology of Meeting Overload, “…managers in one survey reported 83% of the meetings on their calendars were unproductive…” Meeting overload occurs when you have too many meetings on your calendar each day, impacting productivity and mental health, especially when these meetings are continually on Zoom or another video format.

According to Pumble, a communication and collaboration software company, the number of meetings we attend will increase by 34% by 2027 and 70% of employees “believe their job satisfaction would improve with fewer meetings.” And if that is not enough to want you to remove a few meetings from your calendar, Pumble notes that employees spend roughly 31 hours a month in unproductive meetings, which cost a whopping $34 billion annually.

Now, there are many articles out there providing advice and recommendations on how to run an effective meeting, including posts in this blog. However, there is less out there on how to avoid meeting overload. Here are some tips to tamp down meeting overload:

1. When you receive a meeting invite, make sure the reason for the meeting is clearly articulated, so you can assess the need for your presence. It is okay to say, “No.” If you do not feel you can contribute to the meeting, then decline and state that you do not feel your presence will be additive to the meeting.
2. Avoid meetings with more than 8 people if it is designated as a decision-making meeting because we know that it is challenging to make decisions with more than 8 people in the room.
3. Block off time on your calendar to get work done, especially if your calendar is visible to others. Not only does this give you actual time to complete your work—uninterrupted, but it also helps to avoid too much back and forth via email, etc. with the person scheduling the meeting.
4. Also, block off time on your calendar when you are most productive. If you are a morning person, then block chucks if time in the morning, so you can focus and be your most productive.
5. Finally, don’t hesitate to suggest a shorter meeting time (when appropriate). I have started scheduling more 30 minute-, and even 15 minute-meetings, to avoid the meeting filler that always seems to happen—if a meeting is scheduled for an hour, it usually takes an hour.

In a post-COVID world, we have come to rely on meetings, so much so, that many of us do not have time for comfort breaks, let alone catch our breath, or get some of our work done, which often now has to happen early in the morning or late in the afternoon. I encourage you to start discussions within your teams about meetings and the culture of meeting overload. While the tips I have outlined will be helpful, we must work collectively to change the culture where we currently don’t value the meetings, but schedule them anyway, and we invite everyone, whether or not they have a stake or have something productive to share.

Best,