Should you offer a meeting free day?

Why a meeting-free day is the best value productivity AND wellbeing intervention out there (plus how to implement one)

Let’s talk about meeting-free days in organisations. Should offer one? Should you ask for one?

Actually, let’s back up one moment. A meeting-free day is what I call a Radical Decree.

A Radical Decree is usually one of these three:

- a big freedom being granted (e.g. you can turn down or leave any meeting)

- or banning something that used to be a demand (e.g. no PowerPoint in meetings)

- or a liberating constraint (e.g. no meetings before 11am or no meeting on Thursdays)

This is your power move.

All these Radical Decrees are mandating back into balance something that has got waaaay out of balance.

They are not perfect (“Meeting free Thursdays? That’s the only day I’m in the office!”) but it sends a big signal.

Used wisely, with full consideration for unintended consequences, radical decrees can be very effective.

They have to have support from the 'Powers That Be' (PtB) and they have to be acted on and modelled in full by anyone with influence and power.

So let’s go back to the meeting free day, now we know it’s a Radical Decree.

If you want a straight yes or no, I’m going to say yes.

I interview a lot of people about their experiences of meetings. The ONLY people who don’t like meeting-free days are bosses. Everyone else deeply appreciates them.

“My stress levels are so much lower on Monday and Tuesday, knowing I’m going to be able to get my big projects done on Wednesday”

“Meeting free Fridays has been a game changer for me. It gets me out of the crosshairs for long enough to do the work I’m paid to do”

“Yes, yes yes. Without a ban on meetings on certain days, my week would be entirely fragmented into blocks of < 60 minute solo work slot which is just nowhere near enough to get to the depth needed to do complex work.”

I’m not saying everyone should have a meeting free day, no matter what! I’m saying of all the single interventions that organisations I work with have experimented with, this wins hands down for immediate impact.

You can do this as a whole organisation or as a team or division or whatever. The most helpful timings I have seen are two mid week half days, for example Wednesday afternoon and Thursday mornings.

Splitting no meeting time across two days means there is no full day in which meetings can’t take place and it’s a realistic compromise between manager and maker schedules. It also accommodates people who work part time - if you’re only in the office on a Wednesday, it’s not much help if you can’t meet anyone. Employees talk about the huge relief they feel throughout the week knowing that that dedicated deep work time is available.

Defend this time from other people’s urgent work. It’s not about being inflexible. If an urgent meeting is needed one week, can you find a swap? Expect priorities to change and make it normal practice to swap meetings around in your team. But swap, don’t add.

The leadership team and other senior team members have a big role to play. If senior people respect this time, both in their own calendar and in the calendars of others, scheduled non-meeting time has an excellent chance of success.