Why I Don't Believe in 1-Hour Meetings

I don't believe in 1-hour meetings.

That statement usually gets a reaction, especially in the nonprofit sector where our calendars are often packed from morning to evening and everyone is trying to squeeze one more thing into the day.

But after working remotely since 2016, I've become convinced that most meetings don't need an hour.

In fact, I think the standard 60-minute meeting may be one of the biggest contributors to workplace exhaustion.

The reason is simple: Parkinson's Law.

British historian C. Northcote Parkinson famously observed:

"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."

In other words, if you schedule an hour, the conversation will take an hour.

If you schedule 45 minutes, the conversation will likely take 45 minutes.

Most of us have experienced this firsthand. A meeting starts, the agenda is covered in 30 minutes, and then the final 30 minutes become a mix of side conversations, tangents, updates that could have been emails, and discussions that don't require everyone in the room.

Meanwhile, the rest of the day keeps moving.

A few years ago, I began intentionally scheduling most meetings for 45 minutes rather than an hour.

What I discovered surprised me.

The quality of the conversations didn't decline.

The outcomes didn't suffer.

The decisions still got made.

But something else happened.

I got margin back.

Fifteen minutes may not sound like much, but over the course of a day it becomes significant.

That margin allows me to:

Stand up and stretch.

Walk the dog.

Return a phone call.

Review notes from the previous meeting.

Send a follow-up email while the conversation is still fresh.

Grab a snack.

Or, perhaps most importantly, grab a cold Diet Coke from the garage refrigerator.

Those few minutes create breathing room between commitments.

And breathing room creates a different pace.

For years, many professionals have accepted back-to-back meetings as a normal part of work. One call ends and another begins immediately. By the end of the day, there has been no time to think, process, follow up, or even use the restroom.

We wonder why we're exhausted.

We wonder why details slip through the cracks.

We wonder why we feel like we're always running behind.

The answer may not be that we need fewer responsibilities.

It may be that we need more margin.

Margin allows us to transition from one conversation to the next with intention instead of urgency.

Margin gives us space to think.

Margin reduces stress.

Margin helps us show up better for the next meeting, the next project, and the next person.

This is true in our professional lives, but it's equally true in our personal lives.

Calendars packed to the brim leave little room for creativity, reflection, relationships, or unexpected opportunities.

The healthiest seasons of my life haven't been the busiest ones.

They've been the ones where I had enough margin to enjoy the work, not simply survive it.

So while I know 1-hour meetings aren't disappearing anytime soon, I'll continue to advocate for 45-minute conversations whenever possible.

Not because we can't fill an hour.

But because we don't have to.

Sometimes the most productive thing we can do isn't adding more to our schedule.

It's creating enough space to breathe between the things that matter.