Most remote meetings shouldn't exist. Here's the 60-second filter I use before I send any invite.
I used to default to “let’s jump on a call.” Then I counted the hours. Six to eight a week, gone, and the work still wasn’t decided.
Before I send an invite now, I answer three questions in writing:
Can this be handled asynchronously?
Do we need live discussion, or just a status update?
Will the people I’m inviting actually influence the outcome?
If it’s async or pure status, I cancel the meeting and send a written update instead. If it survives, the title of the invite is a decision question, not a topic. “Q3 Roadmap Discussion” becomes “Decide Q3 feature priority ranking by Friday.”
The other habit that actually stuck: a Decision Log open during the call. Every decision gets four fields before anyone leaves — what we decided, who owns the next action, the exact deadline, and how we’ll know it’s done. Then I paste it into the calendar invite before I hang up.
None of this needs software. It needs a filter, a decision rule, and the discipline to capture owners while people are still on the call.
If your calendar is full and your work isn’t moving, start there. Kill two recurring meetings this week. Protect the hours.