In this week's newsletter

• How to protect your calendar for work that can only happen outside of meetings - 7 lessons learned
• Warm-up and check-out questions you can use today
• Q&A: What do I do if people are leaving my meeting early?
• Your weekly bird break

When people learn my work focuses on leading through meetings, they’re often surprised by how much meeting-free time I block. For example, in the six weeks leading up to this newsletter’s launch, I stopped accepting new invites and averaged three meetings per week. Through 15 years in organizations, I’ve tried it all:

• Meeting-free days (self-imposed or company-wide)
• Meeting-free mornings (3-4 hour block)
• Stealth focus time labeled “GSD” (a “project” acronym that actually meant “Get Sh!t Done”)
• The sneakiest version: a string of 30- and 60-minute recurring holds that looked like meetings, not “do not book” time

Some worked. Some backfired.

After years of experimenting in different organizations, here are 7 things I learned:

1. I’m responsible for results, not sitting in meetings all day. Meetings are just one tool to get results. I need to make sure my time spent in meetings serves the bigger picture. And when I don’t take a proactive approach to my calendar, other people fill it based on what works for them.
2. Full meeting-free days aren’t always the answer. Through experimentation, I’ve learned I lose steam on concentrated work by 3:00 PM, so I don't actually need a totally meeting-free day. And company-declared “no-meeting Fridays” often become the day senior leaders and high achievers schedule the “critical meeting,” which defeats the purpose.
3. Adapting to culture is key. If people don’t respect work blocks at an organization, I’ve had the best luck when my work blocks look “normal” for the way my org schedules meetings.
4. Don’t overdo it. I’ve learned that if I block too aggressively, I spend more time managing exceptions than doing the work I blocked the time for! Leaving some open time helps my schedule stay self-serve for others, which gives me more time to concentrate. Office hours can also be a predictable release valve for urgent needs.
5. When people try to book over blocked time, treat it like a "real" conflict. The mindset shift that helps me is treating a work block like a critical meeting I can’t move. It’s a meeting with myself to get my job done. What is one commitment you never move? A 1:1 with your boss, a client call, therapy, childcare pickup? I try to hold my work blocks with the same energy.
6. Think in seasons. My extreme blocking pre-newsletter launch was right for the level of detailed solo work I was doing. Now, I spend a lot more time in meetings with clients and readers. How much time I need to protect shifts with my priorities. I set new recurring work blocks quarterly and adjust them 2-4 weeks ahead.
7. Blocking non-meeting time doesn’t necessarily mean rejecting all meetings. During an intense week, I might still say yes to a new client call but not accept a coffee chat invitation. If you have the option, different availability windows for different types of meetings (in a tool like Calendly) can make nuanced boundaries easier to maintain.

We all have work that can only get done outside of meetings: deep thinking, creating, and executing - not to mention the planning that makes your meetings productive. If you don’t protect time for that work, it won't happen, or it winds up happening over the weekend.

Try this before your next meeting-heavy week:

See what happens when you give yourself permission to protect your time.

Have another strategy that works for you? Reply to let me know!

Relevant Podcast Episode

​Treat Email Like Laundry — and Other Tips from Google’s Productivity Expert from HBR Ideacast

Meeting Minute

​Warm-up question​

This question is a good way to normalize blocking time and acknowledge that it requires effort and intention. If the group skews toward, "I don't," that's helpful data and an opportunity to have a deeper conversation and/or encourage folks to experiment.

​Check-out question​

This carves out time in the meeting to protect work time. It models that tasks need to be accounted for on the calendar in the same way a meeting does. And it helps keep us honest: if someone committed to getting it done by this Friday, but that's wishful thinking, it's better to know that now than next week!

Q: What do I do if people are leaving my meeting early?

A: If people leave and the group continues making decisions, you’ve changed who has a voice in the outcome. That affects decision quality, buy-in for next steps, and increases your workload down the line as you catch everyone up. What to do about it will depend on the underlying cause:

Sometimes it’s about the meeting itself: The objectives are unclear, the person wasn’t needed for the full agenda, or the meeting consistently runs over.

Sometimes it’s bigger than your meeting: People are over-scheduled, double-booked, or distracted. Your meeting might be fine and still lose people to their packed calendars.

One lever to start with:
Does every person on the invite need to be there for the full time? If not, how might you structure your agenda so their items come first and give explicit permission to leave after?

If everyone needs to be there, have the conversation directly:

• With the full group: “I’ve noticed some folks dropping early. What’s getting in the way of staying the whole time?”
• With one person you know well: “I noticed you’ve had to leave early a couple times. Anything I can do differently next time?”

Once you pinpoint the underlying cause, you can start to experiment with next steps.

Want support getting your calendar under control?

My Meeting Reset Package is designed to help you go from meeting overload to action plan in just three sessions. Reply to this email or book a consultation call to learn more.