Most Meetings Are Pointless
I just spent the last 2 weeks in back-to-back meetings, including an evening public meeting. The majority of these meetings were completely pointless and resulted in even more meetings due to poor planning and management. I didn’t do any actual work during these two weeks. It is now Thursday morning on week 3 and I finally have a free afternoon and a mostly open Friday. I will try to squeeze 80 hours worth of work in 12 hours.
A younger me would work nights to catch up but older me doesn’t. If I get asked why work is delayed, I simply point out the fact that we just had 80 hours worth of meetings instead of working.
This is the problem with meetings. The majority of them take up actual working time and result in nothing productive.
Avoid pointless meetings
If I am advising you to avoid meetings, then why did I just spend 80 hours in them? Because I had to.
These were contractual meetings tied to large infrastructure projects. When you are a discipline lead, you don’t always have the option to skip them. You are required to be there whether the meeting is useful or not.
But that does not change the underlying problem. Most meetings are not designed to produce outcomes. They are designed because “we need a meeting.”
The real problem is not meetings, it is meeting overload
There is a difference between a useful meeting and constant interruption. Research shows that meetings are necessary for coordination, but once they cross a certain threshold, they start working against you instead of for you .
The biggest issue is not even total meeting time. It is frequency. Back-to-back meetings create a fragmented day. You never get enough uninterrupted time to actually think, plan, or execute. You are constantly switching contexts, and every switch has a cost.
Even if you technically have “free time” between meetings, it is not usable time. You cannot start deep work when you have 30 minutes before the next call. So that time becomes dead time. That is how you end up in a situation where your calendar is full, but nothing gets done.
Why most meetings feel pointless
Let’s be honest. People do not hate meetings for no reason. They hate them because they are poorly run. The research lines up almost perfectly with what you see in real life. Meetings feel pointless when:
1. There is no clear outcome
Most meetings are labeled as “updates” or “discussions.” That is the first problem. If the meeting is not driving a decision, resolving a conflict, or producing a deliverable, it probably should not exist.
2. The wrong people are in the room
Large meetings kill accountability. When ten people are invited, three people talk, five people listen, and two people are doing something else entirely.
3. There is no agenda or the agenda is not followed
Meetings drift. Topics expand. Time gets wasted. Research consistently shows that simply having and completing an agenda is one of the strongest predictors of whether a meeting is perceived as effective.
When I set up a meeting, I always include an agenda or at least an outline of the things that need to be discussed as well the reason for the meeting.
4. There are no decisions or action items
This is the biggest one. If a meeting ends without clear decisions, owners, and deadlines, then you did not have a meeting. You had a conversation that will need to be repeated later. That is how one meeting turns into three.
This is the second thing I always do regardless if the meeting stayed on track or not. If I set up a meeting, it it because I need something done. I wrap up every call with an action list and who is responsible for what.
5. There is no time to recover
This is something people underestimate. Bad meetings do not just waste the hour they occupy. They also waste time after the meeting because you need to reconstruct what just happened, figure out next steps, and regain focus. That recovery time is real, and it adds up.
The hidden cost of meetings
People think meetings cost one hour because they are one hour long. That is not how it works. A one-hour meeting with ten people is not one hour. It is ten hours of company time. Add in preparation, context switching, and recovery, and the real cost is even higher.
Now stack those meetings back-to-back across an entire week. You are not just losing time. You are losing your ability to produce anything meaningful. That is why people feel busy but unproductive.
Do more meetings improve productivity?
Short answer: no.
Longer answer: up to a point, yes. After that point, absolutely not.
There is a threshold where meetings help coordination and alignment. But once you pass that threshold, more meetings start reducing contribution, creativity, and actual output .
This is exactly what most workplaces get wrong. They assume more communication equals better results. In reality, too much communication becomes noise.
How to make meetings actually useful
You cannot eliminate all meetings. But you can make them better. Think of meetings in three phases: before, during, and after.
Before the meeting
- Define the outcome, not the topic. Do not schedule a “project update.” Schedule a “decision on X” or “approval of Y.” If you cannot define a clear meeting outcome, then don’t schedule the meeting yet. Perhaps instead of a meeting you just need to talk to one or two other people.
- Use an agenda that can actually be completed. Be realistic with the time. If your agenda requires two hours, do not book a one-hour meeting and hope for the best.
- Invite only the people who are needed. More people does not mean better decisions. It usually means slower ones. Make sure you invite the ones that need to make a decision. If they cannot attend, reschedule.
- Send information in advance. This one drives me nuts. Meetings should not be used to read slides out loud. People should come in ready to decide, not ready to learn what the meeting is about. If I call a meeting, I spend time ahead of the meeting preparing the materials everyone needs to be familiar with to make a decision. Although I do this, most attendees never read the materials. But I keep doing that because I want my meetings to be productive.
During the meeting
- Start and end on time. This sounds basic, but it matters. It sets the tone for everything else.
- Assign someone to lead. Meetings without a clear leader drift. Someone needs to control the flow, keep things on track, and push toward outcomes. If someone schedules a meeting that I need to speak at, I make sure to check in with the organizer to see who is leading and when I need to jump in and talk.
- Focus on contribution, not discussion. If the same two people are talking for an hour, you do not need ten people in the meeting. Design the meeting so people actually contribute. You can always provide a summary of the meeting to a wider audience (see next).
After the meeting
- Document decisions immediately. What was decided? Who is responsible? What are the deadlines? If this is not written down, it will be forgotten or debated again.
- Follow up quickly. The longer you wait, the more context is lost. This is what creates the need for “follow-up meetings.”
Practical advice for real-world projects
If you are in a role where you cannot avoid meetings, you need to manage them differently.
Here is what actually works:
- Separate status from meetings. Status updates should not be meetings. Use emails, dashboards, or shared documents. Reserve meetings for decisions and problem-solving.
- Split meetings into two types. Decision meetings with the right people, short and focused. Working sessions with smaller groups where actual work gets done.
- Protect your calendar. Do not allow full days of back-to-back meetings. If your schedule is packed, you are not being productive. You are being scheduled.
- Push back when needed. If a meeting has no agenda or purpose, ask what the outcome is. If no one can answer, you already know the meeting is not necessary.
Final thought
Meetings are not inherently pointless. But meeting overload is very real. The problem is not that meetings exist. The problem is that they are overused, poorly designed, and treated as a default solution.
At a certain point, meetings stop supporting work and start replacing it. And when that happens, you end up exactly where I was this week.
80 hours of meetings and 12 hours to do 80 hours of work? That is not a productivity problem. That is a meeting problem.
