How to Identify and Kill
"Zombie Meetings"
They shuffle onto your calendar every Monday. They eat your brains (and your budget). They are Zombie Meetings—recurring events that have lost their purpose but refuse to die.
What is a Zombie Meeting?
A Zombie Meeting is defined by three characteristics:
- No Agenda: The description is blank or "Weekly Sync".
- Low Engagement: People multitask, cameras are off, and silence reigns.
- Legacy Purpose: Established for a project that shipped 6 months ago.
The "Calendar Audit" Framework
You don't need to cancel everything. You need to triage. Use this framework once a quarter to keep your calendar healthy.
Kill (Delete)
Status reporting meetings where information flows one-way. Move to email or Slack.
Shrink (Optimize)
Default 60-minute meetings should be 30. Default 30 should be 15. Force brevity.
Reset (Re-invite)
Cancel the series. Create a new one with a clear agenda. Only invite those who absolutely need to be there.
Keep (Protect)
Deep problem solving, decision making, and team bonding. These are high-value.
How to Cancel Without Being Rude
The fear of offending colleagues keeps zombies alive. Here is a script you can copy-paste:
"Hey team, in the spirit of respecting everyone's time, I'm auditing our recurring meetings. Since this project is in maintenance mode, I'm going to cancel this weekly sync. We can handle updates via Slack/Linear, and spin up ad-hoc calls if we hit a blocker. Thanks!"
Identify Zombies Automatically
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