Writing about meetings and scheduling
Things we have learned from watching groups try to agree on a time. No newsletter, no gated downloads.
Scheduling
How far in advance should you schedule a meeting?
The notice period that gets people to actually attend, why booking too far out is its own failure, and what changes when the group is external.
6 min read
Nobody is replying to your meeting poll. Here is why.
Six reasons a scheduling poll stalls, from too many options to sending it at the wrong hour, and what to change about the next one.
6 min read
Meetings
Why recurring meetings outlive their purpose
Recurring meetings are the easiest thing to create and the hardest to cancel. How they accumulate, what they cost, and a review that takes ten minutes a quarter.
6 min read
What makes a meeting agenda worth writing
Why most agendas are lists of topics that change nothing, the one property that makes them useful, and how to write one in under five minutes.
5 min read
Do you actually need a meeting?
A short test for whether something needs synchronous time, what belongs in writing instead, and the two cases where a meeting is genuinely the cheaper option.
5 min read
How long should a meeting be?
Why the default hour is an artefact of calendar software, what different kinds of meeting actually need, and how to shorten one without losing the point of it.
6 min read
How many people should be in a meeting?
Why meetings get worse as they get bigger, the group sizes that actually work for deciding, discussing and informing, and how to cut an invite list.
7 min read
Remote work
Async or sync: which work belongs in a meeting
A practical split between work that needs people at the same time and work that does not, and why distributed teams get the line wrong in both directions.
7 min read
What back-to-back meetings actually cost you
Why a calendar with no gaps produces less work than one with them, what the research on task switching says, and practical ways to defend the space between meetings.
6 min read