Audit your calendar: meetings you can skip, shorten, or async

A recurring meeting is added once, in a moment of hope, and then survives by default. Nobody ever asks whether it should still exist.

Every standing meeting is a standing debt against your attention. For ADHD brains the interest is worse: the context switch before, the drift during, the slow re-entry after.

A 30-minute meeting rarely costs 30 minutes. It costs the half hour, plus the waiting-mode before it, plus the restart after it.

And meetings breed. One standing sync quietly becomes three, because inviting everyone feels safer than choosing.

Once a quarter, open your calendar and list every recurring meeting. For each one, ask a single question: what decision or output happens here?

• Clear output, and you're needed for it: keep it.
• Vague output: shorten it to 25 minutes.
• Output that could be a message: move it to async.
• No output at all: decline or delegate.

If you cannot name the output, the meeting cannot either. “We've always had it” is a habit, not a reason.

Shortening is the underrated exit. A 25-minute default forces the actual point to show up early.

Put the audit in your calendar as a recurring event of its own — one meeting that deletes other meetings is a good trade.

Run the audit on a Friday afternoon or another low-stakes slot. It takes about twenty minutes, and deleting meetings is genuinely satisfying work.

You don't need a legal defense. One calm sentence is a complete answer.

• “Could I read the notes instead? I'll reply if anything needs me.”
• “My input fits better async — can I send it before the meeting?”
• “Could we try 25 minutes and see if anything is left over?”
• “I think Sam covers my area on this — can they take it?”
• “This one doesn't need me live — ping me if a decision comes up.”

Expect mild pushback the first time. Repeat the sentence, offer the notes-and-async option, and let the silence do the work.

Treat the first audit as a test run; next quarter's takes half the time.