The "No Meetings Rule" That Makes Teams 10x Faster
dailyblog.scottdclary.com
Hi All,
Here’s my daily newsletter navigating the crossroads of business, growth, and life.
If you love this content (please share it), but also…
Start here > https://newsletter.scottdclary.com
Check out my Podcast, connect with me on YouTube / Twitter, and read my Weekly newsletter.
Sponsor NetSuite
Let's be real - nobody can predict the future of business. Markets up, markets down, inflation everywhere... it's a lot. But here's the thing: over 41,000 companies have found something better than a crystal ball. They use NetSuite by Oracle to run their entire business in one place - we're talking accounting, inventory, HR, everything. While others are stuck guessing, you'll have real data to make smart moves.
Want to see what the future of your business could look like? Grab the free CFO's Guide to AI at netsuite.com/scottclary.
Free AI Guide: netsuite.com/scottclary
Listen Here
The "No Meetings Rule" That Makes Teams 10x Faster
Your calendar is a graveyard of productivity.
Meeting after meeting. Call after call. "Quick syncs" that drag on for an hour. "Weekly updates" where nothing actually gets decided.
And at the end of each day, you're left wondering: What did I actually accomplish today?
Here's a brutal truth most leaders refuse to admit: Most meetings are a complete waste of time.
While you sit in that third status update of the day, your competitors are building, shipping, and moving forward. Your team is generating ideas on paper instead of building them in reality. Your mental energy is being drained by conversations that could have been handled in a fraction of the time.
But there's a solution that the most productive companies in the world have embraced.
A simple rule that has helped organizations like Amazon, Stripe, and Basecamp move at speeds that make their competitors look like they're standing still.
If a meeting doesn't have a clear purpose and an actionable decision, cancel it.
This isn't just about having fewer meetings. It's about fundamentally changing how work gets done.
Let me show you how this rule transforms organizations, why it works when other productivity hacks fail, and exactly how to implement it in your own team—even if you're not running a tech giant.
The Meeting Tax No One Talks About
Most founders underestimate the true cost of meetings.
It's not just the time spent in the room. It's the devastating ripple effects that follow:
Context switching penalties: It takes the average knowledge worker 23 minutes to fully refocus after an interruption. That meeting in the middle of your morning doesn't just cost 30 minutes—it costs the productive hour on either side of it.
Collective time multiplication: A one-hour meeting with 8 people doesn't cost one hour—it costs eight hours of combined organizational time. That's an entire workday gone in 60 minutes.
Decision debt: Every "let's discuss this next week" creates organizational lag that compounds over time.
Maker vs. manager conflict: Creative workers need uninterrupted blocks of time to produce their best work. Meetings shatter these blocks into unusable fragments.
This is why so many teams work frantically but accomplish so little. Their calendars have been we aponized against their actual objectives.
How Amazon, Stripe and Basecamp Solve This
The most innovative companies don't just have "fewer meetings." They've completely reimagined how decisions get made.
Jeff Bezos and the "Two Pizza Rule"
Amazon's famous "two pizza rule" isn't just about meeting size—it's about decision velocity.
Bezos took this even further with a radical approach to executive meetings:
At the start of senior leadership gatherings, everyone sits in complete silence for 30 minutes reading a six-page memo about the decision at hand. Only after everyone has absorbed the same information does discussion begin.
Why? Because Bezos understood that:
Reading transfers information more efficiently than talking
It eliminates the influence bias that comes when the highest-paid person speaks first
It forces clear thinking before discussion begins
The result? Amazon makes complex decisions with remarkable speed while competitors are still scheduling follow-up meetings.
Stripe's "Write-First Culture"
Patrick and John Collison built Stripe into a $95 billion company with a simple principle: important thinking happens in writing, not in meetings.
Their approach:
Documentation over discussion: If it matters, write it down
Asynchronous by default: Decisions don't require everyone in the same room at the same time
Meetings as the exception: Only called when writing and async communication hit their limits
This write-first approach allowed Stripe to maintain its execution speed even as it scaled from 5 to 5,000+ employees.
Basecamp's Meeting Ban
Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson took an even more extreme approach at Basecamp:
They eliminated recurring meetings entirely.
No daily standups. No weekly check-ins. No monthly reviews.
Instead, they built systems for sharing progress, surfacing issues, and making decisions that don't require synchronous communication.
As Fried explains in his book It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work: "Meetings should be like salt—a spice sprinkled carefully to enhance a dish, not poured recklessly over every meal."
Why the "No Unnecessary Meetings" Rule Works
This isn't just about reclaiming calendar time. The rule works because it forces three critical behaviors:
1. It Demands Clarity
When you can't hide behind a meeting, you're forced to think clearly.
Most meetings are called because someone hasn't done the hard work of clarifying:
What exactly is the problem?
What information do we need to solve it?
Who specifically needs to be involved?
What decision needs to be made?
By blocking the easy out of "let's just have a meeting," you force this clarity work to happen upfront.
2. It Creates Accountability
Meetings often serve as corporate theater—they create the appearance of progress without the reality of results.
When you eliminate unnecessary meetings, you eliminate the illusion of productivity. All that remains is actual output.
This creates a culture where people are judged by what they produce, not by how many meetings they attend or how eloquently they speak in those meetings.
3. It Promotes Asynchronous Work
The most valuable thinking rarely happens when someone puts you on the spot in a conference room.
It happens when you have space to reflect, research, and refine your ideas—something that's impossible in most meeting-heavy cultures.
By defaulting to asynchronous communication, you allow people to engage with information and decisions when their energy and focus are at their peak.
How to Implement the No-Meetings Rule (Without Causing Chaos)
You don't need to be a tech giant to implement this approach. Here's how to start, regardless of your company size:
Step 1: Audit Your Meeting Load
Before changing anything, understand what you're dealing with:
Calculate total meeting hours per week (individual and team-wide)
Categorize meetings by type (decision-making, information-sharing, brainstorming, status updates)
Identify which meetings consistently produce clear outcomes and which don't
One founder I worked with discovered her 7-person team was spending 41 combined hours per week in internal meetings—more than an entire work week lost every single week.
Step 2: Establish Your Meeting Criteria
Create clear standards for what justifies a meeting:
A meeting should only exist if it meets ALL these criteria:
It requires synchronized real-time discussion
It needs to result in a specific decision
The decision cannot be made asynchronously
The right people (and only the right people) can attend
Print this criteria and post it visibly in your workspace—virtual or physical.
Step 3: Create Alternatives to Meetings
Don't just cancel meetings—replace them with better systems:
For status updates: Use a simple text-based daily check-in tool or Slack channel
For information sharing: Create a central knowledge base or wiki
For brainstorming: Use collaborative documents with clear prompts
For quick questions: Establish communication norms (Slack for urgent, email for non-urgent)
The tools matter less than the principles behind them.
Step 4: Design Better Meetings (For the Few You Keep)
For the meetings that truly earn their place on your calendar:
Require pre-work: Distribute reading materials 24+ hours in advance
Set clear outcomes: Every meeting invite must state the specific decision to be made
Establish time limits: 30 minutes maximum for most meetings
Assign roles: Facilitator, decision-maker, and note-taker
End with actions: Every meeting concludes with clear next steps and owners
One CEO I advised cut meeting time by 64% by simply requiring every meeting invitation to include the phrase: "The decision we need to make is..."
If the organizer couldn't complete that sentence, the meeting wasn't allowed.
The Hard Part: Cultural Resistance
Let's be honest: implementing this approach isn't technically difficult. The hard part is overcoming the cultural attachment to meetings.
You'll face resistance:
"But we've always done it this way"
"I need face time with my team"
"Not everything can be written down"
"We'll lose the human connection"
These concerns aren't entirely invalid, but they often mask deeper issues:
Managers who equate visibility with productivity
Teams that lack trust in asynchronous work
Organizations that value appearance over results
The solution isn't to ignore these concerns but to address them head-on:
Start small: Begin with one meeting-free day per week
Measure outcomes: Track productivity and decision quality before and after changes
Create connection differently: Schedule social time that doesn't masquerade as work
Lead by example: As a leader, be the first to cancel your unnecessary meetings
The Asynchronous Advantage for Small Teams
While companies like Amazon and Stripe get the headlines, this approach offers even greater advantages for small businesses and startups.
When you have limited resources, the cost of coordination is proportionally higher.
A solopreneur or 5-person team simply cannot afford to waste time on unnecessary meetings. Each hour spent in a conference room is an hour not spent on product development, sales, or customer service.
Jason Cohen, founder of WP Engine, built his company to $100M+ in revenue with a simple meeting philosophy: "If it can be an email, make it an email."
This approach allowed his small team to compete against much larger competitors by maintaining focus on execution rather than coordination.
The Reality Check: Some Meetings Are Still Valuable
I'd be lying if I said you should eliminate all meetings. Some genuinely deserve their place on your calendar:
Complex problem-solving sessions where real-time interaction creates value
Relationship-building conversations that build trust and alignment
Emotional or sensitive discussions that benefit from facial expressions and tone
Genuine emergencies that require immediate coordination
The key is making these meetings the exception rather than the default.
Your Action Plan: Start Today
You don't need organizational consensus to begin. Start with your own calendar:
This week: Cancel or decline any meeting without a clear decision outcome
Next week: Replace one recurring meeting with an asynchronous alternative
This month: Draft and share meeting criteria with your team
Next quarter: Implement one meeting-free day per week
Remember, this isn't about being anti-social or avoiding collaboration. It's about being intentional with the most precious resource you and your team have—focused time and attention.
The most successful companies aren't the ones with the most meetings. They're the ones who protect their time to focus on what truly moves the needle.
Because at the end of the day, your calendar isn't just a collection of appointments. It's a reflection of what you truly value.
And if what you value is progress over process, results over appearance, and output over input—it's time to embrace the no-meetings rule.
Your competitors are hoping you don't.
Thank you for reading.
– Scott