Employees spend 31 hours each month in unproductive meetings. On average, meetings are delayed 10 minutes and 40 seconds, equivalent to 3 days and 2 hours lost each year for each employee. 47% of employees complain about the fact that meetings waste their time the most at work. Just 11% of meetings are productive, and 89% aren’t, despite organizations spending around 15% of their working hours in meetings.
Microsoft research shows that back-to-back meetings can decrease your ability to focus and engage.
Breaks are not only good for wellbeing, they also improve our ability to do our best work.
Stop meeting madness with the PAUSE Meeting Framework™.
P – Purpose & Preparation
- Purpose Test: Can this be resolved via email/Slack?
- Pre-work Required: Send materials 24 hours in advance
- Participant Check: Is everyone necessary?
A – Agenda with Action Items
- Agenda Template:
- Topic (Time allocated)
- Expected outcome
- Decision needed
- Action Items Only: No status updates that could be emails
U – Under 30 Minutes Default
- 30-Minute Standard: Make 1-hour meetings the exception
- Start at :05: Begin 5 minutes after the hour
- End at :55: End 5 minutes before the hour
S – Schedule Smart
- Meeting-Free Days: Designate specific days for deep work
- Time Blocking: Group meetings in clusters
- Standing Meetings Audit: Review recurring meetings quarterly
E – Evaluate & Exit
- Exit Criteria: Clear outcomes defined
- Evaluation Metric: Rate meeting effectiveness (1-5)
- Early Endings: End when objectives are met
Implementation Guide
Quick Assessment Questions
Before scheduling any meeting, ask:
- Is this meeting necessary?
- Who really needs to attend?
- What’s the specific deliverable?
- Could this be handled asynchronously?
Meeting Categories
Label meetings as:
Decision Required
Discussion Needed
Information Only (Consider Email)
Before you schedule any meetings, run the ROI Calculation
Time Investment = (Number of Attendees × Meeting Duration × Average Hourly Rate)
Change how you do meetings. Change how you live and work.
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