I recently set a goal of trying to keep the amount of time I am in meetings to <40% of my time. But, if I work a 40-hour work week, that’s only ~16 hours worth of meetings; no big deal, right?
But the thing is, most 1-hour meetings cost around 2-hours of my time. Here’s how I break that down:
30-minutes of prep (we all agree we shouldn’t go into a meeting unprepared)
1-hour meeting
5-10 minutes getting to/coming from a meeting (sure, this could be less, depending on where you’re going or coming from)
5-minutes code switching (essentially the fatigue of going from one thing to something completely different)
15-minute follow up (making sure your notes and action items are squared away)
You’d be fair in saying, “but Nate, I don’t take this much time!”
I’d argue back, “but maybe you should?”
Meetings should always move something forward. Whether it’s unlocking a problem, answering a question, or bringing everyone in-line with the vision of something; if a meeting requires no pre or post work, one has to ask if there isn’t a better, more time-efficient way to move forward.
For me, this means that if I schedule 16-hours worth of meetings, I should be considering 32-hours of work to prepare, facilitate, and follow-up for those meetings.
It’s a high cost, and worth considering.