Edit existing meetings to increase focus time
5 min
Beginner
By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to:
- Identify which meetings are high value and decline or reschedule the rest
- Consolidate meetings to free up focus time
Identify which meetings are high value
What should meetings be used for?
An Atlassian study of 5,000 knowledge workers across four continents found that the main reason people struggle to get their work done is meetings. In fact, the research found that meetings are ineffective 72% of the time, due to things like lack of clarity or purpose, repetitive information, or meetings that “could have been an email.” Meetings should be saved for discussions that:
- Require creativity
- Solve for complexity
- Drive momentum
- Address a challenge
- Promote bonding
Could it be a Loom or a Slack?
If you find yourself about to send out an agenda where you’ll talk through a list of task updates, you probably don’t need a meeting. Try sending a written update in Slack or a Loom video instead.
Decline or reschedule meetings that aren’t a high priority
Ideally, meetings should make up no more than 30% of your work week. That’s about 12 hours or less a week. One way to maximize your focus time is to decline or reschedule lower-priority meetings.
What if I already have less than 12 hours of meetings? Great! You can still use this as an opportunity to think about what meetings are essential and decline or modify any that aren’t adding value or making the team more effective.
👉 For example: Cynthia notices a recurring weekly meeting that often feels redundant and doesn't impact her current projects. She reaches out to the organizer, explains her need for more focus time, and suggests rescheduling or consolidating it with another meeting. The organizer agrees, freeing up valuable time for Cynthia to focus on deep work and boost her productivity.
👇 Click the box below to see an example note to send with your decline.
Group existing meetings together
Consolidate meetings to free up focus time blocks
According to research, it takes about 20 minutes to get into a flow state. It can be difficult to get anything beyond surface-level work done if you have a ‘stripey calendar’. A ‘stripey calendar’ is one with many short meeting blocks and breaks between them.
One of the best ways to reclaim focus time in your busy schedule is by grouping your existing meetings together. Instead of having meetings scattered throughout the day, try consolidating them into back-to-back blocks. This approach minimizes the number of interruptions and allows you to have larger, uninterrupted chunks of time for deep work. By being strategic about when you schedule meetings, you can create more consistent focus time blocks, ultimately boosting your productivity and reducing the number of context switches.
👉 For example: Naveen has three 30-minute priority meetings spread out across his day. He reschedules them into a single 90-minute meeting block so he can dive deeper into his tasks for the day without being interrupted by meetings.
Tips for consolidating meetings:
- Schedule 1:1 meetings back-to-back where possible.
- Need a break between meetings? Schedule meetings to start 5 or 10 minutes past the hour instead of leaving larger gaps.
- Try to reschedule meetings to certain days to leave one day “meeting free.”
- Try a smart calendar assistant tool like Clockwise to block focus time and batch meetings together for you.
Aim to spend no more than 30% of your week in meetings (that’s about 12 hours or fewer a week).
How was this lesson?
next lesson
Set daily priorities and focus on critical work
- Set your top priority for the next day
- How to determine your top priority work
- Why should you schedule time for prioritized work?
- Block any "not available" times in your calendar
- Practice activity