Why Every Meeting Costs You Double (And 3 Ways to Break the Cycle)
Meetings don’t just steal an hour from your calendar; they steal your momentum.
In knowledge work, it’s easy to confuse busy with productive. We plan the work, review the work, and discuss the work, all without leaving space to actually do the work. Every meeting carries a hidden cost: the recovery time it takes to get back into deep work.
If you want to protect your goals, you need to protect your time.
Here are three quick ways to do that:
Default to No: Your inbox is an open invitation to others’ priorities. Saying “no” keeps you focused on yours.
Batch Meetings: Stack meetings into blocks to protect large chunks for real work. Leave a 10-minute buffer to summarize and plan the next steps.
Double Book (For Yourself): For every hour you schedule in meetings, block an hour to process, execute, or recover.
Working harder doesn’t mean working longer. Protect your time, and you’ll find more of it than you realized.
Follow these steps, and meetings will stop costing you double, freeing your time and your mind for what truly matters.
What’s your best tip for protecting your time?