How much time does the average person spend in meetings?

The average professional spends about 31 hours per month in meetings, according to Atlassian research. Executives spend even more — up to 23 hours per week. This works out to roughly 35% of the average knowledge worker's week consumed by meetings.

What percentage of meetings are unproductive?

Research from Harvard Business Review shows that 71% of senior managers consider meetings unproductive and inefficient. Atlassian found that employees consider about half of their meeting time wasted. The key issue is meetings that lack clear agendas, decisions, or outcomes.

How do I reduce time spent in meetings?

Five effective strategies: 1) Audit your calendar weekly and cancel anything without a clear purpose, 2) Set "no meeting" blocks for deep work, 3) Default to 25 or 50 minutes instead of 30 or 60, 4) Decline meetings that lack an agenda, 5) Use AI meeting assistants like Convo to eliminate recap and follow-up meetings.

How much do unproductive meetings cost?

U.S. businesses lose an estimated $37 billion annually to unproductive meetings. For an individual earning $75/hour who spends 50% of meeting time unproductively, that's approximately $40,000 per year in wasted salary alone.

What's a healthy amount of meeting time per week?

Most productivity experts recommend keeping meetings to 20-30% of your work week (8-12 hours for a 40-hour week). Beyond 50%, productivity drops significantly as there's insufficient time for deep work. The optimal amount depends on your role — managers may need more meeting time than individual contributors.

Should some of these meetings be emails instead?

Likely yes. Status updates, information sharing, and simple coordination often work better as async messages. A meeting is most valuable when it requires real-time discussion, group decision-making, or complex back-and-forth.

Convo

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Audit your meeting time

Find out how much of your work week goes to meetings — and how much that costs.

Meetings per day

Average meeting duration

Your hourly rate

Work days per week

Meetings you consider productive (optional)

0%50%100%

Industry average: 31 hours/month in meetings · ~35% of work week

The meeting time problem

Most professionals don't realize how much of their week is consumed by meetings until they see the numbers.

31 hours

Average time spent in meetings per employee each month (Atlassian)

23 hours

Time executives spend in meetings per week (Harvard Business Review)

35%

Of the average knowledge worker's week is spent in meetings (McKinsey)

Five ways to reclaim your meeting time

Audit your calendar weekly

Review every recurring meeting. Cancel anything without a clear purpose or outcome.

Set "no meeting" blocks

Block 2-3 hour windows for deep work. Protect this time like you would a meeting with your CEO.

Default to shorter meetings

Use 25 minutes instead of 30, and 50 instead of 60. Work expands to fill the time available.

Decline meetings without agendas

If there's no agenda, there's no meeting. Not sure if you need to meet?

Use AI to eliminate follow-up meetings

Tools like Convo capture action items and decisions automatically, so you never need a "recap" meeting.

Frequently asked questions

Take back your calendar

Convo's AI meeting assistant helps you run shorter meetings and eliminates the need for follow-up calls.

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