Hey there,

Most sales leaders spend 40-60% of their week in meetings they don't need to attend.

I used to be that person - drowning in back-to-back meetings, missing family dinners, and working weekends to catch up on actual work. But after developing and implementing my Meeting Matrix system, I've cut my meeting load by 23% and helped dozens of others do the same. The best part? Nobody has missed anything important.

Today, I'm sharing my exact process for auditing and optimizing your calendar using the Meeting Matrix framework. You'll learn:

• How to identify which meetings are actually moving the needle

• A scoring system to evaluate meeting effectiveness

• Specific tactics to reclaim 5-10 hours of your week

Bonus: Loom walkthrough and template of my exact system

Let's dive in.

4 Steps to Slash Your Meeting Load While Keeping Your Team Aligned

The key to reducing meetings isn't just randomly declining invites – it's having a systematic way to evaluate and optimize your calendar. Here's my proven process:

Step 1: The Meeting Audit

First, you need a clear picture of your current meeting load. Pull up your calendar and create a spreadsheet (or use my template) with all recurring meetings. For each meeting, note:

• Meeting name

• Frequency

• Duration

• Number of attendees

• Type (internal vs external)

• Total hours (mo)

This baseline helps you understand exactly how many hours you're spending in meetings and the total team hours consumed.

Step 2: The Decision Test

Score each meeting on four critical factors:

1. Decision Test: Are real-time decisions actually being made?

2. Attendee Value: Are the right decision-makers present?

3. Format Necessity: Could this be handled via email/Slack?

4. Frequency Fit: Is the current cadence justified?

Use a simple 1-3 scoring system for each factor. This will highlight which meetings need optimization.*

*For the full scoring guide - grab the template.

Step 3: The Optimization Phase

For meetings that score below 10 points, consider implementing these proven adjustments:

• Reduce the duration (ex. 30-min → 25 min or 60 min → 50 min)

• Change the frequency (ex. weekly → bi-weekly, bi-weekly → monthly)

• Change the format - (ex: daily stand up → Slack update)

• Reduce attendee lists to essential decision-makers only

  

Step 4: Track and Adjust

Calculate your new total hours and team hours after implementing changes. This is where you'll see the dramatic impact – in my case, a 23% reduction in meeting time.

I recommend you go through this exercise quarterly. (annually at a minimum)

That's it. Here's what you learned today:

• Most recurring meetings can be optimized or eliminated without negative impact

• Using a scoring system removes the emotion from meeting decisions

• Small adjustments (like 5-minute reductions) add up to massive time savings

Want to get started right away?

I've created a Meeting Matrix template and Loom Walkthrough you can use to audit your own calendar. Click the image below to watch:

Hit reply and let us know why.

PS...If you're enjoying The Systematic Sales Leader, please consider referring this edition to a friend. They'll get the exact systems I use to save 10+ hours every week.