The feeling of being over-scheduled is a symptom of running ineffective meetings with no clear purpose. These bad meetings create new problems that then spawn more meetings to fix them, creating a vicious cycle of wasted time. The solution is better meetings, not fewer.

Scheduled, recurring meetings can lead to teams inventing topics to discuss simply because the time is blocked. This creates busywork that isn't impactful. It's better to meet when necessary rather than defaulting to a fixed cadence without a clear, persistent need.

To maximize the value of bringing teams together physically, focus on one of three goals. "Doing" involves collaborative work on a key project. "Learning" focuses on gaining business context. "Planning" aligns the team on strategy and roadmaps. This framework ensures gatherings are purposeful and effective.

Before attending a meeting, ask two questions: 1) "What specific decision or alignment will this create?" and 2) "What happens if we don't have this meeting?" If you can't provide clear, impactful answers, the meeting is a waste of time and should be canceled or handled asynchronously.

The first step to better meetings is asking "should we have this meeting at all?" By eliminating purely informational meetings, you prevent the formation of norms like disengagement and silence. This makes it more likely that when a collaborative meeting is necessary, team members will actively participate.

Friday afternoons are often low-productivity. Use this window for a high-leverage task: triaging your calendar for the upcoming week. Proactively cancel unnecessary meetings, shorten others, and delegate tasks to free up prime time before the week even begins.

Teams using Scrum don't need a new meeting framework. Patrick Lencioni's "Death by Meeting" model maps directly to existing ceremonies: the Daily Check-in is the Daily Standup, the Weekly Tactical is the Retrospective, and the Monthly Strategic aligns with Sprint Planning.

CPC separates board meetings into two sessions: a virtual one for reviewing past results with functional leaders, and a subsequent in-person meeting for forward-looking strategy with the CEO. This structure prevents the common trap of getting bogged down in past performance when strategic, future-focused discussion is needed.

Your calendar is the foundation of your execution system. Use AI to scan your schedule, find recurring blocks for deep work on key goals, and automatically suggest rescheduling conflicts. This moves AI from a passive assistant to an active agent that defends your most valuable resource: your time.