If you lead any kind of development then I’m talking to you, and I am telling you to just stop scheduling vague meetings.
Vague meetings are not progress. They are a comforting illusion getting in the way of solving real problems.
I was a coordinator in a mid-sized company, with a calendar that was booked solid for more than a week in advance. But most meetings were vague and did not create a lot of value. I will tell you how I changed that and reclaimed half of my day.
Step 1: See your calendar for what it really is
Open your calendar. Odds are there is more in there than you would like. Start by not calling everything a meeting. Every calendar app lets you color code. Use it to start classifying.
The first color is for social events. After-works, Wednesday breakfast, what have you. These are for team bonding and blowing off steam, they are a good use of time.
The second color is for 1-on-1s shorter than 30 minutes between each employee and their manager. This is a safe space where people are truly heard. Where you, as an employeee, can say you want more from your job. Where you, as a manager, hear about problems before they spread.
The third color is for team check-ins of 15 minutes or less. This is where you catch up on what is happening in your team. Where you ask for help. Where you offer it in return.
Your fourth color is for any session with up to two others focused on concrete tasks.
With these four colors, you separate all low-risk events. If little remains, congratulations. Your calendar is healthy.
But if you manage or coordinate, chances are your calendar is still full of uncolored meetings. These are the high-risk meetings that you need to start working on.
Step 2: Diagnose if each high-risk meeting is a productive use of time.
This is simple. Start with the invite.
Good meetings have one of three clear goals: to decide, to plan, or to discuss something sensitive that requires in-person presence. Everything else can be handled with a written message, a recorded video, or preferably both.
Good meetings share all necessary material in advance. For decision meetings, background info is shared beforehand, so the meeting can focus on the decision itself. For information meetings, the material should also be shared early and the meeting time is used to answer questions and listen to concerns.
Good meetings do not invite people who do not need to be there. If it is not clear why you are invited, have the courage to ask and be prepared to decline.
Good meetings are never booked directly back-to-back. People need time to breathe, grab coffee, use the bathroom, or move between locations. Your calendar app can automatically end all meetings a few minutes early. Enable this setting across the organisation.
Once in the meeting, use this checklist to spot if it is productive.
Good meetings start on time with everyone present. Waiting more than two minutes for late arrivals wastes time and disrespects those who showed up on time.
Good meetings end on time. Everyone shares responsibility for keeping the meeting on track. If more time is needed, the facilitator ends the meeting early enough to schedule a follow-up.
Good meetings leave you with much more clarity than when they began.
So use colors to classify meetings.
Apply the checklist to what remains.
Decline what is not productive.
And reclaim up to half of your time for focused work.
Less theatre. More progress