In October of last year, I presented on behalf of The Cadmus Group to a group of IT leaders in the federal government. Like everyone else, these leaders face the challenge of too many meetings with little to no time for deep work — a necessity in the IT space. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with many leaders committing to reducing meetings as a priority.

Here’s a snippet of what I shared with them and what you can start applying today.

Meetings by the Numbers

First, some fascinating (yet somewhat predictable) numbers I discovered through my research on meeting management:

• 68% of employees say they don’t have enough uninterrupted focus time during the workday. (Harvard Business Review)
• The no-participation rate for small group virtual meetings increased to 7.2% in 2023, up from 4.8% in 2022. HBR notes this number is likely higher due to people coming off mute to say “hello!” with no further participation. (Harvard Business Review)
• The cost of no-participation meeting attendance in 2023 was $19.1 million — a staggering $8.9 million increase from 2022. (Harvard Business Review)
• Managers in one survey reported 83% of meetings on their calendars were unproductive. (Harvard Business Review)

For a deeper dive into why we default to so many meetings, I recommend The Psychology Behind Meeting Overload by Ashley Whillans, Dave Feldman, and Damian Wisniewski. Here’s what you can do about it.

1. Listen to this 27-minute podcast

How To Be Less Distracted at Work — and in Life is step number one. During your workout, on your commute, over your lunch break — slap on those headphones and take a few notes.

2. Block time off for deep work on your calendar

I try to do this every Monday once I’ve made my to-do list for the week. As bigger projects come up or delays occur, I work them into the next week as well. Be realistic with this at first — don’t try to reserve several hours a week if your calendar is already packed. Start with 2-3 hours a week and go from there.

3. Identify your distractions

You’ll understand this better once you’ve completed step one. We must understand what our distractions are by first determining our triggers. Chats, emails, and scrolling our phone are all examples of distractions, but if we can master our internal triggers we can conquer our distractions.

4. Determine how to address your distractions

Do you need to put an away message on Teams for deep work? Should you frontload deep work at the beginning of your day? What about leaving your phone in another room until lunchtime? Depending on your role and industry, these may not all work for you. But I assure you, there is something you can do differently.

5. Perform a meeting audit

Which meetings are most effective? Can any recurring meetings be shortened? Which ones can occur less frequently? Can people who play the same role take turns attending? These are just a few questions you can ask yourself to get started.