How to get more out of every meeting

This lesson shows you how to run meetings that are worth the time they cost. You will learn how to decide if a meeting is necessary, how to structure it for outcomes, and how to ensure every meeting ends with clear next steps.

T07 Less and Better Meetings

Meetings can be great. The main reason for meetings are these two. Brainstorming: collaborative thinking helps to come up with better ideas. And to make decisions: if complex situations arise, it's helpful to have multiple people involved. For both of these reasons, you need information. I believe meetings are too long because we mix the good parts of meetings, brainstorming and decision-making, with the bad parts, which is sharing information. Sharing information can be done in a better way since we live in an age of technology.

Loom videos: I love recording these. It's an add-on that lets you screen record your entire desktop. The viewer can watch at two times the speed, which saves them time. And you don't have to interrupt their work with a quick question anymore.

Don't mindlessly accept all meeting invitations. If you're not sure, use the maybe button. Ask for an agenda. Each Friday take a moment to review your schedule for the upcoming week. Actively decide if the meeting should be held next week.

Meetings fill up the space they have. If you schedule a short meeting, the same things actually will get discussed as in the longer version. There's a setting in Google Calendar called speedy meetings. 30-minute meetings become 25 minutes, 60 becomes 50. Microsoft research shows stress levels are higher without breaks between meetings. Short breaks produce less stress and better engagement.

What's a meeting for a meeting? It's a meeting about where we're going to discuss what we're going to discuss in the next meeting. I think it's lazy to have meetings like this because a shared document with comments would be faster and you can skip the pre-meeting.

F05 Working Async

Async communication means you're responding when it's convenient to you. When you're focused, you don't have to respond and it doesn't break your focus. Let's kick off with Loom Videos. For most people, it's a lot of friction to write a big email with all the details. So it's easier to schedule a meeting, right? Well, let's keep that benefit but not interrupt our colleagues by recording a Loom video.

Move conversations from chat or email into project management tools like Asana and Notion. Keep all the tasks, notes and communication about one project bundled. Build an internal wiki, which preserves company knowledge and processes. Document repetitive tasks and frequently asked questions to empower the team.

I once sat through a 60-minute marketing meeting where 40 minutes were spent sharing updates that could have been a Loom video. The actual discussion, the part where we needed everyone in the room to make a decision, took 15 minutes. Five people in a room for an hour. That's five hours of collective time for 15 minutes of value.

After that meeting, I started asking a different question about every meeting on my calendar: "Does this actually need to be a meeting?"

The two valid reasons for a meeting

Meetings are good for exactly two things: brainstorming (collaborative thinking produces better ideas) and decision-making (complex situations benefit from multiple perspectives). Both of these require live interaction. Everything else, sharing information, giving updates, presenting data, can be done asynchronously and better.

The problem is that most meetings mix the good parts (brainstorming and decisions) with the bad parts (information sharing). You spend the first 30 minutes getting everyone up to speed and the last 10 minutes rushing through the decisions. Flip that ratio and meetings become valuable.

Replace information sharing with async

Here's what I use instead of status update meetings:

Loom videos. Record your screen, explain the context, send the link. The viewer watches at 2x speed (saving them time) and doesn't have to interrupt their deep work to attend a live meeting. I love Loom for design reviews, campaign walk-throughs, and "here's where we are" updates.

Comments in shared documents. If everyone can add their thoughts to a Google Doc before the meeting, you can skip the items everyone already agrees on and spend the meeting on actual disagreements. Less vocal team members often contribute better ideas in writing than they do in a room of ten people.

Visual feedback tools. For design or creative work, tools like Figma or Miro let people leave comments directly on the work. Share the design before the meeting. People arrive with formed opinions instead of reacting on the spot.

Five ways to have fewer meetings

Don't accept every invite. If there's no agenda, use the "maybe" button and ask for one. No agenda usually means the organiser hasn't thought about whether your time is needed.

Review your calendar on Friday. Look at next week. For each meeting, ask: is this still relevant? Can I skip it and read the notes instead? Can I join for just the part that needs me?

Cluster one-on-ones. If you have four one-on-ones scattered across the week, try moving them to the same day. This frees up unbroken blocks on other days for deep work.

Use speedy meetings. Google Calendar has a setting that makes 30-minute meetings 25 minutes and 60-minute meetings 50 minutes. Meetings fill the time they're given. Shorter meetings force sharper discussion. And the 5-10 minute breaks between meetings reduce stress and improve focus for the next one.

Microsoft research shows that back-to-back meetings without breaks increase stress levels significantly. Even a 5-minute gap between meetings improves both engagement and wellbeing.

Schedule fewer meetings yourself. Before booking a meeting, ask: could this be a Loom? Could this be a Slack message? Could this be a comment in the shared doc? If yes, do that instead.

Making the meetings you keep actually good

Always share an agenda beforehand. A meeting without an agenda is a meeting about what the meeting should have been about. Share the agenda 24 hours in advance so people come prepared. Decisions that need information get real answers instead of "I'll get back to you on that."

Question who needs to be there. Look at each agenda item and ask: does everyone need to be here for this? Maybe two people can join for the first 15 minutes and leave. Maybe the product team only needs the notes, not the invite. Mark people as optional when appropriate.

Take meeting notes every time. Assign one person to capture key points, decisions, and action items. Share the notes within the hour. This builds accountability and means people who couldn't attend (or chose to skip) stay in the loop.

The best meeting improvement isn't a better agenda template. It's having fewer meetings in the first place. Replace information sharing with async tools. Protect your calendar with the "does this need to be a meeting" question. And when you do meet, come with an agenda, keep it short, and send the notes afterward.

Pick one meeting this week that could be a Loom video instead. Record it. Send the link. See how much time you get back.