How To Run Efficient Meetings
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The real cost of a meeting
A meeting of 8 people for an hour isn’t a 1-hour meeting — it’s an 8-hour meeting, charged at the combined hourly rate of everyone in it. Most companies run meetings as if the cost is zero. This guide walks through the actual dollar cost of a meeting, the four meeting types worth holding, the single-question test for whether to hold one at all, and the tactical rules that make meetings actually end on time.
The single-question test
Cost = Σ (each attendee’s fully-loaded hourly rate) × meeting length in hours.
The 4 meeting types that earn their cost
Fully-loaded rate = salary × 1.3-1.4 (to include benefits, taxes, overhead). A $120k engineer costs the company ~$75/hour.
The agenda rules
This cost is invisible in most budgets because it’s already spent on salaries — but it’s a real opportunity cost. Every hour in a meeting is an hour not writing code, talking to customers, or thinking.
The attendee rules
If yes → write the doc, share it, collect async comments.
The meeting itself — tactical rules
If no → meeting is justified, but keep it focused.
Notes and follow-through
Status updates, announcements, read-aloud decks, and FYI-style briefings almost always fail the test. Read time << speaking time, and docs can be searched later.
Meeting-free time blocks
Everything else is typically a doc in disguise.
The meetings you should cancel
Without clear followups, “great meetings” evaporate by Monday. The output of a decision meeting isn’t the conversation — it’s the decision + owner + deadline written down.
The cancel-reduce-shorten framework
Once a quarter, audit your recurring meetings:
Run the numbers
A single quarter of disciplined auditing typically recovers 5-10 hours/person/week.