Member-only story
Do you need to reclaim your calendar? Start here.
Imagine this: You wake up in the morning and log in to your work calendar. You see a day with a good balance of meetings that will accomplish your goals for the day, and time to do necessary work. What if we could introduce processes that minimize the time required to talk about work or fight off random tasks flung our way by equally harried co-workers? What if we could organize our days around a small number of discrete objectives? (The New Yorker: The Rise and Fall of Getting Things Done)
I have been researching asynchronous productivity for the past few months. I’ve learned that the right types of meetings save time. That’s right. They don’t take time. They don’t make time. They save time.
According to Owl Lab’s 2020 State of Remote Work Report, 26% of people reported meeting more than usual after transitioning to remote work… and 80% agreed that there should be one day a week with no meetings at all. Once you’ve articulated the purpose of your meetings and what the intended outcomes are, the second step to optimize your meetings is to build a culture where meetings don’t take place unless they practice good meeting hygiene.
