He Cut 91% of His Meetings and Made More Money

What did constant meetings cost me? They cost me everything.

Between 2013 and 2023, I averaged 43 meetings a month in my career. The average meeting lasted 51 minutes.

That is an average of over 36.5 hours a month spent on nothing.

But that number isn’t actually true. It doesn’t include drive time or the consequences of a meeting.

I found in my own data research that I was spending a minimum of nine more hours driving to meetings, preparing for meetings, fixing technical issues on Zoom, and printing out my agendas.

I also found that, on average, one out of every six meetings that I attended created the need for another meeting.

Maybe two or three people in the meeting needed to meet privately to hash out some details before bringing them back to the rest of the group.

Maybe that meeting prompted us to meet directly with a third party to inquire about their needs.

All in all, I could conservatively state that over 45 hours a month were going directly into meetings that were not moving the mission forward or strengthening workflows.

If we only took my own hourly rate at the time and excluded the impact on others at the meeting or the economic impact of that organization stepping away from diligent work, meetings were costing me $6,750 a month in pure income (45 hours × $150 an hour).

I bought into the idea that meetings were part of being a professional, showing my dedication, staying on top of new information, and strategizing for the future.

By 2024, I had fully recognized that meetings were actually having the opposite effect on me.

Read the full story: What Did Constant Meetings Cost Me? It Cost Me Everything.