For those of us in corporate leadership roles, are we all in back-to-back meetings all day, most days? I usually have 10-15 meetings per day (plus tons of actual work) and feel like my brain and soul are withering away. This isn’t sustainable. Hoping there are firms where it’s better?

Same here! But we need to make sure we block time to work in our calendars, and role model this with our teams.. this 2023 I started mainly mondays and fridays, let's see if I can improve in 2024 and demonstrate Time ownership

And probably 70% of those meetings could be handled in a group chat or email. Another 20% will be a drawn out series of meetings before any actionable plans develop or it fades out of focus. 10% of the meetings will result in a feeling we’ve accomplished the agenda.

If you’re in a leadership role, it’s your opportunity to delegate and ask for summaries where you need to know or have your input included. It’s time to reduce the time you spend in meetings.

Same 🫣

Same and I’m gaining weight bc I never leave my desk.

Lots of meetings but I have been blocking off time on my calendar as not available to do work so I am not so overwhelmed.

Every. Damn. Day.

We have tons of meetings and are expexted to spend time with out team in the field.

Same

Same

Same

I'm a rockstar as needed (~10%) and do F*** all the rest of the time. I have a good team that I hand picked, though.

Same everywhere

Same here with multiple meetings scheduled across the same time period 😒 I have to block time for “desk time” to make sure I get all my “homework” for my meetings done

Same!

Ugh this is my life too

Same! My days are spent in meetings or putting out client or staff fires and then I spend my evenings and weekends actually doing work. I own the company (small boutique consulting firm) so my situation might be a little different but I totally understand what you mean.

I block our working blocks for myself and leave Mondays and Fridays to get the bulk of my work done . Any week I am back to back it’s so exhausted. I definitely didn’t work this much when I was in an office lol

Same here, at multiple roles and functions, even with time blocking and trying to set boundaries. It was bad before and Covid made it worse. Thankfully I’m retiring soon.

Same.. i also block time for just *processing* (or, gasp, the actual WORK), but that can get stomped on pretty quickly. I do hear the comment about delegating and holding people accountable, but we haven't had raises in so long that theres precious little incentive for people to raise their hands. It's exhausting, and if im invited to 1 more zoom "happy hour" im going to flip a vehicle with my bare handa.

I schedule focus time on my calendar because your inbox is a list of other people’s priorities and you need to protect your own.

I also set up my Outlook preferences so the default meeting lengths are 25 and 50 minutes. This benefits everyone since it allows for bio-breaks or movement between conference rooms — it’s also standard at places like Google and Facebook.

This WAS me before I was laid off; my learning is that some of the back to backs/triple bookings do not need to be attended. Start looking at every meeting and determine if you REALLY need to attend or if you can get the info from somewhere else (can you delegate?). I might not have been working 65-70 hrs/week, if I would’ve been more strict with my time.