
Ask HN: Tech Managers/Directors/VP's how much of your time is in meetings? - stackdestroyer
I&#x27;m looking to get some perspective on my own schedule from this diverse group of folks.  I routinely find my schedule dominated by 6+ hours of meetings every single day of the work week.  I <i>feel</i> like this is overkill and part of the reason I am having difficulty keeping things running while capping my hours at about 40 per week.  Basically all the work that gets created in meetings seems to overwhelm the available time based on a reasonable work schedule.<p>How much time do you leaders spend in meetings?  How do you reconcile a meeting heavy role and the ability to get things done while still keeping a sane schedule (&lt; 50 hours a week)?
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epc
When I was initially a manager of a world wide, cross-corporate project,
meetings consumed all available time on my calendar. I was still evaluated as
an I/C so I would do my "I/C" stuff at nights and on weekends. This was
unsustainable. Over time (I'd say 14-18 months) I convinced my management to
either judge me as an I/C and replace my corporate role with someone else, or
let me bring on someone (call the role whatever you want, lieutenant, Chief of
Staff, whatever) who picked up my I/C work. I still did "I/C" work but as a
peer to the guy I brought on board. For meetings I restricted who could add me
to a meeting to about 100 people across the company. Anyone else had to go
through an office assistant we had who'd vet the request and run it by both me
and my lieutenant.

The other thing I did, even with those restrictions in place, was to narrow
down the time window anyone could schedule a meeting to be no more than four
hours a day. If it was critical to the business they'd call me or someone
around me and we'd work it out, but that restriction wiped out a lot of stupid
meetings that I really did not need to be in.

Put another way: put a visible price on your time, and really push back if
there isn't a clear reason for you to be in the meeting.

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chriscatoya
Generally, it’s helpful to follow the 80/20 rule and time-box whatever you’re
willing to allocate per week and no more. Do this and only the most valuable
things rise up. People have a funny way of filling up the time they’re given,
so constrain the allotment.

epc’s advice on limiting and gatekeeping your time availability is a good one.
Also, keep in mind that long email back and forths are micro-meetings and
avoid that trap whenever possible. A piece of advice I got as I was running
five teams was: “Do you ever see executives answer these emails? No, they just
have the conversation and they’re done with it.”

Setting time budgets for meetings and gatekeeping your availability means “No”
is your friend. Used well results in focus. I find it helpful to consider
urgency and importance as the criteria for prioritization.

