Pain Point
Too many recurring meetings drain your week’s productivity.
The Rule
- Set a hard budget for fixed meetings.
- Example: 40 h week, 6 h meeting budget.
Total - Budget = Free -> 40 - 6 = 34- If you go over budget, cut or shrink the least important meetings.
- You can adjust the budget, but do so rarely, otherwise it loses meaning.
- Ad-hoc syncs are fine. It’s the recurring ones that eat up your time.
- Consider doing a similar thing for ad-hoc meetings, if they become a problem.
- Like code, less is better. Always look for ways to reduce, even if you’re under budget.
Analogy
This is similar to the U.S. Senate’s PAYGO rule:
if Congress wants to add $N to a program, they must “find room” by reducing $N somewhere else or by increasing taxes to cover it.