1. Track All Recurring Meetings
Export your calendar for the past 4 weeks. Categorize all meetings: recurring vs one-time, decision meetings vs status updates, required vs optional attendance. Identify patterns in meeting density by day and time.
Implementation Tips:
- • Use Google Calendar or Outlook export (CSV format)
- • Tag each meeting: Type, Frequency, Attendee count, Your role
- • Calculate time: (Duration x Frequency x 52 weeks)
- • Identify meeting-heavy days (usually Monday and Friday)
Estimated Savings:
Awareness alone reduces meeting time by 10% - people cancel unnecessary meetings once they see the data.
2. Calculate Total Cost
For each recurring meeting, calculate annual cost using our calculator. Include: number of attendees, average salary, overhead (1.4x), and context switching time (15 min per meeting). Sum across all meetings to get total organizational meeting cost.
Implementation Tips:
- • Use our calculator for each meeting type
- • Estimate salaries conservatively (err on low side)
- • Include prep time if significant (e.g., presentations)
- • Present total as "FTE equivalents" for impact (e.g., "3.5 full-time employees")
Estimated Savings:
Seeing the total dollar cost motivates action - most teams cut 20-30% of meeting time immediately.
3. Identify Low-Value Meetings
Survey attendees or score meetings yourself on two dimensions: (1) Value/usefulness (1-5 scale) and (2) Cost (calculated above). Meetings that are high-cost and low-value are prime targets for optimization or cancellation.
Implementation Tips:
- • Create a 2x2 matrix: Cost (x-axis) vs Value (y-axis)
- • High cost, low value = cancel or dramatically restructure
- • Low cost, low value = cancel or make async
- • High cost, high value = optimize (fewer attendees, shorter duration)
- • Low cost, high value = keep as-is
Estimated Savings:
Canceling the bottom quartile of meetings (by value/cost ratio) saves 25% of meeting time with minimal impact.
4. Propose Cancellations
Create a specific proposal: which meetings to cancel, which to shorten, which to convert to async. Get buy-in from meeting owners. Run a 4-week experiment, then measure impact. Be prepared to reinstate meetings if critical value was lost.
Implementation Tips:
- • Start with meetings you own or can easily influence
- • Frame as an experiment: "Let's try 4 weeks without this meeting"
- • Provide async alternatives (e.g., Slack channel, weekly email)
- • Measure impact: Did work slow down? Did decisions get delayed?
- • Be willing to admit if canceling a meeting was a mistake
Estimated Savings:
Typical audit results: 20-40% reduction in meeting time, $50K-200K/year savings for a 50-person team.