I Decline 80% Meeting Requests. You Should Too.
Why most productivity coaches have never stopped giving this advice to business leaders
On a regular day, I have close to 5 official and 2 unofficial meeting requests. On busy days, it might increase to a total of 8–10 requests per day. Most busy people have at least 2 times more. Yet, I consciously take a maximum of only 3–4 meetings in a day. Others are mostly ignored by me. For ‘seemingly’ important ones, I either get the gist and action items through email or pick an alternate date.
Why am I so choosy in taking meetings?
Why I don’t attend these discussions which “could” have been beneficial for the audience on the other end — is also part of my reason for not attending.
And I’m not just talking Zoom meetings, I am talking F2F meetings, general catchups over coffee, phone calls — everything.
Macro-level talk
Let’s talk about America. Let’s talk about money. The American economy is losing anywhere between $70 to $283 billion per year, just because of ineffective meetings. From a different perspective, these ineffective meetings can also be tagged as unnecessary meetings for the audience. Therefore, it’s a safe bet to say that this loss can also be attributed to unnecessary meetings. Not to exaggerate, but this analysis excludes some of the informal occupations which form a substantial part of the economy.
The point being built here is that this loss might look as incomprehensible for people talking about personal economies, but the audacity of this figure at the national level shows the prevalence and depth of the problem.
Down to the personal level
A Harvard study says meetings have increased in length and frequency over the past 50 years, to the point where executives spend an average of nearly 23 hours a week in them, up from less than 10 hours in the 1960s. And this doesn’t even include all the impromptu gatherings that don’t make it onto the schedule.
We can, of course, find zillion reasons as to why we should meet people. I don’t need to list them down here.
But let me give you some on why we don’t. It is what studies support, it is what productivity coaches have been saying for years and it is also one of the things by which Casey Neistat keeps making wonderful vlogs day in and day out.
- Time is Zero Sum.
- Every minute not spent talking/ participating is spent doing something else.
- Most important: It is NOT an equal bargain.
#1 Time is Zero Sum
Zero-sum. Some of you might have heard this phrase. It is widely used as an economic term and it simply means, a situation (such as a game or relationship) in which a gain for one side entails a corresponding loss for the other side, or one party wins when the other loses.
Time is zero-sum.
The extra time taken by your one activity eats up time from another activity. I played extra ball today, I will wake up late tomorrow. I want to wake up early, I’ll have to miss my sleep time. The same happens in day-to-day dealings. When you choose to spend time in a meeting, you are compromising something else from your schedule or time. When I choose to attend a casual get together, I am expensing it against something else, say spending time with family. Therefore, whenever someone asks me for my time, I get very critical and my autonomous system kicks in if I really want to compromise anything today? Do I have some time from my day today or not?
Next time someone asks you for your time, let this tape play in your mind.
#2 Every minute not spent participating is spent doing something else — hopefully productive
This is not even a corporate thing. This is all the more critical for hustlers who do side gigs. Every minute you gladly accept low-value calls with a partner, just for the sake of “relation-building”, is not worth it unless networking is your primary aim. Casey Neistat said this (yes, I’m a fan of his productivity) that he does not and will not respond to all emails which come to him for tips or mentoring, because if he indulges in all of them — he is prospectively forgoing something else important in his work (zero-sum again) which will lead to his ultimate decline.
Thus, never let this fact go out of your sight.
Is this meet really important, or could I make more progress in the novel I am writing?
The latter will take you places for sure.
#3 It is not an equal bargain, it might not be worth it
I have time and again highlighted this point (footnote) that time’s value is not the same for everyone. Motivational speakers have been buffing us for too long now. Time as a quantity is equal, but as a value is varied.
Bill Gates’ 1 minute is much, much more valuable than yours. He has earned it. You too have earned the value of YOUR time. Therefore, you cannot always give it to everyone who undervalues it.
I have seen multiple instances of people requesting time from entrepreneurs, influencers — for free — which puzzles me? Do they not realise the worth of one’s time?
Let’s not even talk big entrepreneurs, influencers — You, do you think it’s an equal transaction if you are working and your team partner calls you for the 5th time in the last 1 hour — just following up on pieces which if awaited by them, could have been a single, conclusive 5 mins call. Is it worth for you to participate in a 60 mins discussion to go to the movies when 5 friends are already sipping beers on?
I get it, we need to do “relations building”, “not everything is money”, “talking can also be a selfless act towards others”. Guess what, you are all absolutely right. I cannot agree more. In the end, it really falls down to personal choice, personal ambitions. The concept is a simple one. You are already smart enough and the best judge to understand the concept and its application in your day to day life.
This article is not about being self-centered and selfish (probably selfish for your time) but to cut out the parasitic nature of most interactions for your own good. This aims for you to take full control of your time and to understand, what that 30 mins call is for you and what it is for the other person.
In conclusion,
1. Do not make low-value conversation barters
2. Time’s value is not just monetary
These two rules pretty much sum up our concept.
You should never look at meetings in the same way again.
Ever.
On a side note, here are some tips to say NO to meetings. I am also tagging one of my older articles on Time as a stock — which shares an interesting perspective on your time’s value and how it can be seen as a Stock, whose value needs to be increased every day.
Hi, I’m Shagun. I like to read and write about science, philosophy, society, and business. Instead of writing on a whim, I take my time to read, understand, experiment, and then write on interesting topics. Follow me here for other interesting articles.
