‘I wish I had more meetings to attend,’ said no-­one ever.

If you are anything like the average worker, meetings are the bane of your existence and the reason why you probably find yourself doing your actual job well into the evening, because this is the only time it’s possible to escape meeting purgatory.

Research has consistently found that satisfaction with meetings predicts how satisfied we are with our jobs overall. One study found that more than 15 per cent of our job satisfaction is based on our satisfaction with the meetings we attend. And other studies have found that meeting satisfaction is the single biggest predictor of job satis­faction.

So it really is mission critical that time dedicated to meetings is time well spent. And one of the most effective things we can do is to prioritise which meetings we agree to attend.

Professor Scott Sonenshein has thought a lot about meetings. He has also sat in a lot of them. When Sonenshein first joined the School of Business at Rice University in Houston, Texas, about fifteen years ago, he remembers attending his very first faculty meeting.

‘What really struck me is how much time we just sat there and how we would fill up time,’ Sonenshein told me when I interviewed him on How I Work several years ago. ‘There was an hour and a half scheduled, and no matter how big or small the issues were that we were supposed to talk about, we always at least filled up that hour and a half.’

Sadly, he had to endure nine of these meetings every year, and despite the lack of value they added, they remained on the calendar by default.

When a new dean joined a year later, he questioned if this recurring meeting really needed to be there. And in the blink of an eye, those nine meetings were reduced to three per year.

The other six were sorely missed.

Kidding. Of course they weren’t.

Research suggests meetings often happen out of habit as opposed to need. And as a result, people complain they have too many meetings in their diary and that they are a waste of time.

To address this time wastage, Sonenshein designed a process to help everyone clean up their meetings. He recommends going through your diary and, for every meeting, asking three questions:

1. Is this meeting required for my job?

2. Does it bring me closer to my ideal work life?

3. Does it bring me joy?

If a meeting doesn’t fulfil at least one of the above criteria, you are better off not to attend as it will be a poor use of your time.

Sonenshein acknowledges that this is easier said than done. ‘People have meeting FOMO. If we don’t have a seat at the table, it means that we’re not worthwhile, or we’re going to miss out on an import­ ant decision. And some people mistakenly believe that the person who attends the most meetings is working the hardest.’

We need to let go of meeting FOMO and of equating our status with meeting attendance. Meetings should purely be a way of getting work done and making progress. Meetings are simply not worth going to if you’re not getting work done in them. And checking your emails surreptitiously while a meeting is happening doesn’t count as ‘work’.

Want to learn other ways to improve your meetings?

I am "guesting" in a completely FREE 60-minute masterclass, hosted by Peeplcoach's co-founder James Chisolm where I'll be sharing a science-backed framework to cut meeting time by 50% whilst doubling output, tip on how to foster psychological safety, and how to empower your team to bring their best thinking forward.
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Find out how a few small tweaks to your meetings can help you make them more purposeful, productive and worth everyone’s time.
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When: 9th July 2025, 12pm–1pm AEST.
Where: Virtual Session (and if you can't attend, you will be sent a recording).
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​Save your spot today.​

Cheers

Amantha

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