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The Boschetto Bulletin - Meeting Overload

The Boschetto Bulletin - Meeting Overload

Chris Scott
April 14, 2025

I’ve worked inside companies where calendars were a disaster.

Back-to-back-to-back meetings. All day, every day.
No room to think. No space to build. No chance to execute. No innovation.

At one point, I was fighting just to get an hour a week of protected time.

And yet, no one pushed back.

“It’s a meeting-heavy culture. That’s just how we do things.”

Except… it’s a terrible way to do things.
The business is drowning from a lack of alignment - and starving for action.

📖 Execution Playbook: Meeting Debt

There’s a hidden form of Execution Debt™ most teams never measure: Meeting Debt.

It’s the cost of recurring meetings that:

Don’t drive decisions
Don’t create progress
Don’t make ownership clearer

It’s the illusion of productivity — where talking replaces doing.

Here’s how to cut the bloat without losing alignment:

1. Audit Your Weekly Calendar Like an Operator

Look at every recurring meeting and ask:

“If we didn’t run this for a month, what would break?”

Most of the time, the answer is: nothing.

If a meeting doesn’t drive execution, it’s a status ritual — not a business tool.

2. Replace Low-Value Meetings with Asynch Check-Ins

Daily standups? Weekly “syncs”?
Most updates can be written, read, or skipped — without burning 6 people’s time.

Use:

Slack check-ins
Shared dashboards
Quick Loom videos

Reserve real-time time for real-time problems.

3. Every Meeting Needs a Decision, Not Just a Discussion

If it’s not designed to move something forward — cancel it.

And if you do hold it, start every meeting by asking:

“What decision are we here to make?”

No decision? No meeting.

Remember, your calendar is your operating system.
If it’s bloated, your business is bloated.
Lean calendars = lean execution.

🚀 Ready to Spot Your Execution Gaps?

Most businesses are losing at least $10K a year from Execution Debt™ — but they don’t realize it until it’s too late.

Take the Execution Debt™ Score Quiz and see exactly where you’re bleeding time and money.

🔗 Take the Quiz Now

💡 Smart Business Move of the Week

“We deleted 322,000 hours of meetings.”

Kaz Nejatian, COO, Shopify

In 2023, Shopify scrapped all recurring meetings with more than two people.

They banned meetings on Wednesdays.

And they gave every team permission to rebuild their calendars from scratch — on purpose.

Why it matters:
Execution suffers when meetings become the default.
Shopify didn’t just cut fluff — they reclaimed time for focused, accountable work.

You don’t need a mass deletion to follow the principle.
Start small: remove what’s not moving you forward.

⚡️ Execution Power-Up: Test a No Meeting Monday Morning

Clearing your inbox feels productive, but it rarely moves the business forward.

This week, try running a “No Meeting Monday Morning.”

Block off 9–12 on Monday.
No meetings. No calls. No Slack chaos.
Just focused, strategic work on the thing that’s been slipping through the cracks.

🎯 Boschetto Consulting - Eliminating Execution Debt™

Solving problems is what we do. Scaling smart is how we do it.

Struggling with Execution Debt™? Let’s fix it.

📅 Schedule a Call

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