One of the secrets to boosting your team’s productivity is to declare a weekly “no meeting day.” This is a day where meetings are NEVER scheduled, no matter what. The days must be held sacred and not even the big boss is allowed to schedule meetings on that day!
What does this do? It creates a space for people to do their work without interruptions from meetings. This gives them an opportunity to really focus on what they’re doing, get into the flow of things, and accomplish more than they would have otherwise.
It can be tough to get started with this idea, but once you start it’s hard to go back! You’ll find that your team members appreciate having this time to focus (and so will you). Watch the video or read on to find out more.
Creating Space for Focus
The “no meeting day” should be a day where you can really get things done. It’s an opportunity for your team members to work on important, long-range projects they never seem to get enough time free to dive into.
This isn’t just about getting things done for the sake of getting them done—it’s about making sure your team members are able to work at a high level of productivity and engagement. If you’re not giving them time and space to do their best work, then you’re missing out on opportunities that could help your business grow and thrive.
Other Benefits of a No Meeting Day
Meetings are the bane of productivity.
There are too many of them, they’re scheduled at the wrong times, and they’re often called for the wrong reasons. In fact, you can make all kinds of excuses for this behavior: “We need to touch base.” “We need a check-in.” “How else will we know what’s going on?”
But the real reason for so many meetings? It’s because we’ve gotten used to them and don’t think about how much time they take up. So we just keep scheduling more and more of them into our day. We start thinking that it’s normal—that we have to have meetings every day, that they’re part of business as usual. But they’re not!
And here’s another problem with meetings: they sap your focus and productivity throughout your day, and even after they’re over. Have you ever had one meeting lead directly into another one (or several)? I know I have!
By designating deep focus, productivity days, you are shining a spotlight on the fact that too many meetings cripple focus and productivity.
This makes people more mindful when calling meetings so they only call them when they are really needed. By designating a maximum number of meetings in a day (I recommend no more than one) and removing one day a week from the schedule, can help rein in meeting overscheduling.
This doesn’t solve the root problem of too many meetings, but it is a great first step. And it helps your team’s morale when they have more time to focus!
Which Day Should be Your No Meeting Day?
When I first started looking into this, I was intrigued by the idea of a “No Meeting Monday.” First Meeting and Monday both start with M so I liked the alliteration of the phrase. But alliteration is probably not the best way to choose a higher productivity day. 🙂
Another reason I liked Monday is that Mondays are often busy the first day back from the weekend, so I thought it would be nice to be able to just focus on the first day back to work on the week.
But, for projects that move quickly, I can see where you may find it useful to meet on a Monday with your team and plan the week.
A 2019 survey of human resource people by Accountemps found that 39% felt that Tuesday was the most productive day of the week, followed by 24% who thought Monday was the most productive day.
Looking at this, I think either No Meeting Tuesdays or No Meeting Mondays would be a good choice depending on your organization’s needs.
The same study found that most people are more productive in the mornings, so if you want everyone on your team to be at their best, it might be worth moving all your meetings to the afternoon.
Reach Out
Do you need help running more effective meetings? Here are some meeting resources for you:
- Our Free Meeting Cost Calculator
- Our Free Meeting Success Checklist
- Our Team Meeting Pro tips online workshop
If we work together, we can overcome “Meeting Madness!” Implementing a No Meeting Day program is a great start.
Have you successfully implemented a “no meeting day” schedule? Tell us how it worked out in the video comments. And please hit the Like and Subscribe buttons on the video to help us help more people.
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