The Power of “No Meeting” Days at Work: How to Do It and Why

Can you imagine a workplace with few to no meetings? To many of us in the nonprofit sector, it sounds like a dream. But it’s still incredibly rare in the real world. 

Meetings do have their place. Meetings are essential for collaboration, information sharing, team cohesion, decision-making, rapport building, and building alignment. But as we all know, meetings can be a time suck and even many of the productive ones are not awesome or enjoyable. 

I am here to tell you that you can have it both ways. You can get the benefits of less meetings along with the benefits of productive meetings. How? Through “no meeting” days at work.

In our always-on workplaces, saying “no” to meetings can feel selfish or lazy. But no meeting days can be powerful tools for efficiency, effectiveness and productivity. Using no meeting days strategically can help you reach your mission faster and reduce burnout at work. I’ve done it, I swear by it, and in this article I’ll explain how to pull it off. 

Why No Meeting Days Are a No Brainer

As a nonprofit executive director, it sometimes felt like my entire job was happening in meetings. Donor meetings, team check-in meetings, one-on-ones, staff meetings... the list of meetings was endless. As a leader, efforts to shorten meetings can seem rude, and efforts to eliminate meetings can make you seem checked out. There is, however, a way to make it all deliberate. 

I am a massive fan of re-imagining how we work. Many of you know I wrote a hugely popular piece on how to implement the four-day workweek. I also wrote additional pieces with follow-up evidence that the four-day workweek is based on data. One essential way to improve the workweek (whether it’s four or five days) is to eliminate some meetings entirely. When this practice is endorsed at an organization's highest levels, it can work and set a norm and tone that values flexible work styles. 

No meeting days aren’t about forcing anyone to work a particular way. Just like the four-day workweek, no meeting days should be optional. They should be a tool that workers can choose to employ or not. Let’s discuss why they are so effective.

Interruptions Are Kryptonite for Productivity

There is now much research – including write-ups in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times – showing how interruptions kill our productivity and focus. Our smartphones are a huge culprit, as are the notifications on our gadgets. If you step back at look at meetings as interruptions to workflow, you can see how they also kill productivity fast.

For every interruption, whether it’s an email, a “ding” of an app, someone coming into your office or sending you an instant message, or just double-checking your calendar or the news, you are thrown off track. It takes several minutes to get back into the task you were doing before, and sometimes the interruption ultimately makes you lose your train of thought.

Each meeting does the same thing when you look at an entire workday.

“First, there’s the time you spend prepping for the meeting, fixing your hair for the meeting, hurrying to the bathroom before the meeting, making sure you have a notepad or good lighting – the list goes on. Then, during the meeting, it’s frowned upon to be doing other things. After the meeting, there is a temptation to check all your inboxes and apps again, and transcribe any meeting notes back into your task list. If you have several meetings a day, whatever you hoped to accomplish that day is probably not going to get finished, unless you work late or skip a meal.”

Meetings Aren’t Happening Strategically

In most of our workplaces, meetings are not laid out like building blocks or careful blueprints. Instead, meetings happen when there are gaps in attendees’ calendars. The more people in the meeting, the more haphazard the scheduling.

People try to grab open slots in calendars to make meetings happen. There is little thought about sequencing, timing, who actually needs to be in the meeting, whether important meetings should occur when people have a full or empty stomach, or if every meeting needs to fit into 15-minute, 30-minute, or 60-minute boxes.

One way to force your meetings to be more strategic is only to allow them on certain days. This opens space for greater certainty, predictability, strategy, and much more. You can plan meals, travel, snacks, commutes, and more around days that are designed for meetings. Conversely, you can plan many more things on days without meetings.

The Solution: A Day with No Meetings

I hope I haven't buried the lead. I strongly recommend no meeting days.

First and foremost, the more significant your leadership role in a nonprofit organization, the more meetings you are pulled into. At the same time, your need for time to do work – instead of meeting about work – is likely even greater.

One powerful thing about the executive director’s role is that they can try to set their schedule and encourage others to do the same. But too often, we end up doing this half-heartedly. It’s simply too easy to fall back into the old norms. If you decide to try a no-meeting day at work, you must commit to genuinely doing it for yourself and encourage your team to do the same.

Whatever calendar system you use – whether it’s ICal, Google Calendar, Outlook, or another tool – go to your calendar and pencil in 9 am until 5 pm as a blocked period of time that no person or app can schedule over. That is your no-meeting day.

But remember, that time block isn’t just a “hoped-for” chunk of your schedule. It IS a meeting. It is a meeting with yourself and your goals.

The Case for Consistent “No meeting days”

“No meeting” days can be hard to stick to unless you schedule them far in advance. Start now with next week or the week after. Make it the same day every week. This lets the rest of your stakeholders (board, staff, volunteers, vendors) know that this day is sacred and there will be no meetings unless it is unavoidable and urgent.

The Case for “No Meeting Mondays”

I strongly suggest designating Monday or Friday as a no-meeting day. My choice has always been Monday because Mondays are packed with frenetic things like emails, urgent requests, realizations that you are closer to a deadline than expected, and more.

For me, starting the week with a blank piece of paper to write out my goals for the day and for the week and then looking across my next four days feels less stressful. The only meetings I ever let creep into Mondays are those with donors who are hard to pin down.

Fridays can be a natural slowdown, so why bother making it the no-meeting day? The temptation to squeeze in meetings on a Friday before the weekend is huge. While not as powerful as a no-meeting Monday, in my experience, Friday can be a solid second choice.

Ideally, your organization will align around a single shared no-meeting day. The larger your team is, the more difficult it becomes to let everyone choose their individual no-meeting days. At my last organization, I encouraged staff to make Mondays their no-meeting days. If they genuinely needed a different day, we designated certain days – such as days with staff meetings – as off-limits.

While it may take some experimentation, I’m confident you can find a way to make no-meeting days work for your workplace. If you find that scheduling becomes a nightmare, try to tweak it before you toss it.

No Meeting Days at Work Are a Necessity, Not a Luxury

No meeting days must be a consideration for modern organizations. Indeed, they are overdue. We tend to be very collaborative in nonprofits, and that means a tendency to include everyone and meet more often. Our nonprofits’ missions are too important to be stuck in the “meeting muck.” Nonprofit organization staff, especially leaders, should consider instituting no meeting days and normalizing them across the organization.

Meetings interrupt our workflow. They interrupt our goals and objectives. They also diminish our concentration and our work quality. If you can’t reduce the meetings, consider consolidating them into 3-4 days a week so that you have long spans of time to do the critical work of thinking, planning, writing, evaluating, strategizing, or even being in a different location.

Having consistent and predictable no-meeting days helps set norms about when you are available and when you are not and helps you schedule days for the more intense work that cannot be done between 30-minute staff check-ins. If you can, try to make these meetings happen at the best time for you and your team. I suggest trying “No Meeting Mondays” for at least a month before trying a different day.