Before you hit "send" on that meeting invite, ask yourself these five questions. They might save you an hour you don't need to spend.
1. What decision needs to be made?
Meetings are for decisions. If you can't state the decision clearly, you probably don't need a meeting.
Example: "Should we ship Feature X in the March release or push it to April?" — that's a decision.
"Let's discuss Feature X" — that's not. That's a conversation.
2. Who needs to be there?
Only invite people who can contribute to the decision. Not people who need to be informed — they can be updated after.
Every extra person in a meeting reduces its effectiveness by about 10%. Keep it small.
3. What information do they need beforehand?
If people need data to make a decision, send it before the meeting. Don't use meeting time to present information that could be read.
"I've attached the analysis. Please review before the meeting." — 5 minutes of prep saves 30 minutes of presentation.
4. What happens if we don't meet?
Sometimes the answer is "nothing." The issue isn't urgent enough to interrupt everyone's day.
If the decision can wait a week, it probably doesn't need a meeting at all.
5. Can this be a Slack message instead?
Honestly? Most things can.
Before scheduling a meeting, try writing it out. If you can explain the issue and get a response in Slack, do that. If not, then schedule the meeting.
The System Behind It
I use a Meeting Mastery System that turns these 5 questions into a pre-meeting checklist:
- Pre-meeting template that forces you to answer these questions
- Decision-first meeting structure
- Time-boxed agendas
- Decision logs that capture outcomes
These 5 questions alone have saved me from scheduling countless unnecessary meetings.
[Link to Meeting Mastery System in bio]
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