May 9, 2025, Issue #20
Hello, time travelers (or at least would-be time travelers)!
We all know the drill: you sit down for a meeting that could’ve been an email, and somehow, you’re stuck for hours in a never-ending discussion about… absolutely nothing. If you’ve ever walked out of a meeting wondering if you should’ve just taken a nap instead, this one’s for you.
Let’s break down how meetings have turned into black holes of productivity:
- The Never-Ending Meeting:
- Expected Time: 30 minutes.
- Actual Time: Two hours of your life you’ll never get back.
- You start with excitement, ready to discuss something important, and by the end, your soul is slowly drifting out of your body, questioning the meaning of time itself.
- How did we get here? Maybe it’s because we thought “let’s get everything out in the open” was a good idea. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t.
- The “But What About My Update?” Syndrome:
- “Quick update from my side!”
- Reality Check: Thirty minutes later, you’re still listening to someone explain their 17th revision of a spreadsheet that, honestly, could’ve been shared in an email last week.
- Meanwhile, you’ve sat there nodding politely while your mind tries to remember if you’ve checked your email or ordered lunch yet. Spoiler: you haven’t done either.
- And by the time they finish, you’re wondering if you’ve just watched the most boring episode of “The Office” in real life.
- Decision Fatigue (aka The Great Confusion):
- Meeting Goal: Make decisions.
- End Result: No decisions were made, but at least you’re now in a state of complete confusion and existential dread.
- Ever leave a meeting with a headache, a confused look on your face, and zero actionable outcomes? Congrats, you’ve just experienced decision fatigue.
- The endless debates, the constant flip-flopping, and the 47 “let’s circle back” moments leave you exhausted. Oh, and don’t forget, the final decision usually just ends up being to have another meeting. If only we had just, you know, made the decision.
- The Meeting That Should’ve Been an Email:
- You know those meetings where, in hindsight, you realize there was literally nothing discussed that couldn’t have been easily handled via a quick email thread or a Slack message?
- The “Meeting That Should’ve Been an Email” is the most frustrating of all. It’s a cruel illusion of productivity, where everyone sits around pretending to actively collaborate instead of just tackling the task in a fraction of the time.
What’s the Solution?
In theory, there are simple ways to fight back against these productivity vampires:
- Shorten Meetings: Keep them brief. The fewer the words, the more actually gets done.
- Keep It on Track: Set clear agendas, and more importantly, follow them. If your meeting starts meandering into “let’s talk about Bob’s cat photos,” it’s time to rein it in.
- Say “No” to Unnecessary Meetings: Sometimes the most powerful thing you can say is, “Do we really need a meeting for this?” If you can send it in an email, just do it!
- Bring an Agenda (or Prepare to Get Lost): If you don’t have an agenda, you’re essentially wandering aimlessly in a meeting maze with no exit. It’s like a quest, but without the dragons or treasure.
So next time someone invites you to yet another meeting, take a moment to consider: Is this really necessary, or are we just waiting for the coffee to kick in?
Time is precious, my friends. Don’t let meetings steal it!
Quote
“Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.”
Alan Cohen