There's a reason Shopify cancelled all their recurring meetings. Most of them were a waste of time.
You know the pattern. Bad wifi, slow starts, back-to-back calls with no break, someone's dog barking in the background. By the time you've actually started, ten minutes have gone. By the time you've finished, you can't remember what was decided.
But the problem isn't meetings themselves. It's how they're run. With a clear purpose and a thoughtful agenda, meetings can be genuinely productive. The issue is that most meetings have neither.
Here's what I've found actually works.
Share the agenda in advance. Send it the day before so participants can prepare properly. If there are pre-reads, send those with as much notice as possible. And send a reminder a few hours before, because no one remembers to do their pre-reading until they're prompted.
Create clear objectives. Every meeting should have a reason to exist. What are you discussing? What are you trying to decide? Clear objectives help participants know whether they're actually needed. If you're invited to a meeting and can't figure out why, ask. Or let the organiser know you're dropping off. Don't just ghost, but don't sit through meetings where you add nothing either.
Keep to time. Start on time, finish early, don't waste minutes on small talk. Remote meetings aren't the place for catching up on someone's holiday. If you want to chat, call them separately. Meetings should focus on outcomes. One useful trick: set meetings for 25 or 55 minutes instead of 30 or 60. Parkinson's law means we fill the time available. Shorter defaults give you a break between calls to grab a coffee and reset.
Only invite necessary participants. Barry from Accounting doesn't need to be at your design critique, even if he loves branding. Invite people with required knowledge or decision-making authority. If you've got curious team members who want to stay informed, share the agenda and notes afterwards instead.
Involve each participant. If you've done the previous step right, everyone in the room is there for a reason. Make sure they contribute. The quietest person often has the best ideas. If someone's shy, have them present a section of the agenda they're confident in. It gets them comfortable and brings their perspective into the conversation.
And the real bonus: be intentional about whether you need a meeting at all. The best meeting is often no meeting. Could you achieve the same result with an email or a quick Slack thread? Meetings are expensive. They cost everyone's time and cause context switching. A status update is rarely meeting-worthy.
Before you send that calendar invite, ask yourself if it's truly necessary. Often, it isn't.