If You’re Always “Too Busy,” You’re Doing It Wrong

When someone asks how you are and your automatic reply is, “Too busy,” it’s a red flag that your calendar has gotten out of hand.

One-on-ones, project updates, team meetings, leadership huddles, client check-ins – not to mention the impromptu “Can I just get 5 minutes?” meetings – have a way of multiplying like dandelions. A few can be good for the bees, but they’re tough to get rid of once they take root.

For busy managers, this meeting proliferation isn’t just inconvenient; it’s expensive. It’s a slow erosion of focus, decision-making quality, and ultimately, your effectiveness. You may think you’re being productive because your days are packed, but the truth is: being busy is not the same as being impactful.

The Cost of Meeting Overload

We’ve all been there. The week has a few blocks of time open for deep thinking or follow-up work. You might even get to that report that isn’t due yet. “This is the week I’m going to catch everything up.” Then, one by one, the invites arrive. “I just need five minutes.” “Could you do a quick review?” “Can I pull you into this meeting?” and then the school calls and you’ve got a sick kid on your hands.

Meetings themselves aren’t the enemy. The problem is unexamined meetings, ones that exist by inertia rather than intention. If you multiplied the number of hours your leadership team spends in meetings by their hourly rates, the number might shock you. But the real cost is the strategic thinking, relationship-building, and execution that never happen because everyone’s talking about the work instead of doing it.

As a general rule, when the people closest to the decisions spend more time meeting than moving, productivity is in decline. Let’s fix that.

Step 1: Audit What You’ve Got

Pull up your calendar for the past month. Colour-code meetings by category – internal, client, leadership, recurring, ad hoc. Then ask yourself three questions for each:

1. Was a decision made? If not, was there at least clear progress toward one?
2. Was my presence required? Did I add unique value, or was I simply informed?
3. Would I attend this again if it weren’t already on the calendar? If the honest answer is “no,” it’s a candidate for pruning.

Patterns emerge quickly. You’ll notice certain meetings where everyone talks but nothing changes. Others where the wrong people are in the room. And a few where the same conversation repeats weekly with new slides but no new outcomes.

Awareness is the first step.

Step 2: Remember It’s an “Invitation”

If you were invited, you can decline. Not that you should, necessarily, but you could.  When you’re invited to a meeting, you probably check if the time’s available, not whether it’s valuable. Take this assessment one step further by asking these questions:

1. Do I need to be there?

Many leaders attend out of habit. They were part of the original project, and their name just keeps getting copied forward. If the meeting can move ahead without you and people have the information and authority to decide, step back. You don’t need to monitor everything to stay accountable.

Instead, ask for an AI generated summary and calendar a time to review that summary. It’s remarkable how often that 90-minute meeting can be converted to a 15-minute catch-up of equal value. That’s not disengagement; it’s leverage.

2. Does this need to happen this often?

Cadence is the sneakiest culprit in meeting creep. Weekly check-ins become sacred rituals long after the reason for them evaporates. Ask: what would break if we met biweekly instead? Most of the time, nothing, except your stress level.

3. Does it need to be this long?

Sixty minutes is default, not destiny. Try setting 50 or even 25 minutes. When time shrinks, so does filler.

4. Could a smaller group handle it?

Many meetings balloon because people don’t want anyone to feel left out. But inclusivity doesn’t mean inefficiency. Invite contributors, not spectators.

5. Is there a clear agenda and purpose?

If the invite doesn’t spell out what’s being decided or discussed, decline until it does. “Discuss project update” isn’t an agenda. “Decide on next phase of rollout and budget implications” is.

6. Can we replace it with notes or an asynchronous update?

If the goal is simply to share information, a brief written update does the job. Reserve live time for discussion, alignment, and decision-making — the things humans still do better together.

Step 3: Make Meeting Pruning a Process

Pruning once isn’t enough. Without a process, meetings will grow back. Here’s a simple system to keep things under control:

• Quarterly Meeting Reviews. Every 90 days, look at all recurring meetings. Ask the organizer:
  • Is this still serving a purpose?
  • Could the same results be achieved differently?
  • What would happen if we paused it for a month?
• Tighten Defaults:
  • Default meetings to 25 or 50 minutes.
  • Default updates to asynchronous tools.
  • Default recurring invites to expire after 3 months unless renewed.
• Empower People to Decline. Create a culture where declining a meeting is a sign of clarity, not defiance. If someone says, “I don’t think I’m needed,” celebrate that awareness.

Step 4: Handle the Pushback

When you start pruning, expect some resistance. People will worry they’ll miss something important. Others might see your absence as disengagement. Frame the change clearly:

“I’m streamlining my calendar to focus on the most impactful conversations. If I’m not there, it’s because I trust you to make good decisions and keep me informed.”

Don’t just cancel meetings; replace them with better systems for communication and accountability. Encourage shared notes, clear owners, and post-meeting summaries.

Over time, the discomfort fades, and people realize the benefit: meetings that remain are shorter, sharper, and more productive.

Step 5: Reinvest Your Time

Cutting meetings isn’t the goal. It’s what you do with that reclaimed time that matters. Use the reclaimed hours for:

• Strategic thinking: Quiet space to focus on growth, not maintenance.
• Coaching: One-on-one conversations that actually develop your team.
• Learning: Reading, exploring, and stretching your thinking.
• Reflection: Evaluating what’s working and what isn’t before you react.

Those are the activities that separate “busy” managers from effective leaders.

Step 6: Measure the Impact

You’ll know your pruning is working when:

• Meetings start on time and end early.
• Decisions are made faster.
• People stop saying, “We already talked about this.”
• Your team proactively cancels low-value meetings themselves.

The clearest signal? Open space in your calendar — not by accident, but by design.

How to Get Started

Here’s a 30-minute starter routine for this week:

1. Block 30 minutes for a calendar audit. Scan the next two weeks and flag every meeting you could skip or shorten.
2. Send three emails: “Can you send me a summary instead?” “Can we make this biweekly?” “Can we tighten this to 25 minutes?”
3. Cancel one recurring meeting that’s no longer serving a clear purpose.
4. Book two 90-minute blocks of uninterrupted “thinking time” and protect them like gold.

Then guard that white space like it’s your most important meeting, because it is.

The Real Leadership Lesson

It’s easy to confuse busyness with importance. But being constantly in motion isn’t leadership, it’s avoidance dressed up as productivity.

You don’t get paid to attend meetings. You get paid to make decisions, set direction, and empower others to execute.

If your calendar is so full that you can’t think, the company isn’t getting your best leadership.

Final Thought

Time is the one resource every one spends but can never earn back.

So, this quarter, look at your calendar not as a badge of commitment but as a reflection of priorities. If it’s crammed edge to edge, it’s not proof of dedication, it’s a signal to pause and prune.

The leaders who create space are the ones who think clearly, move faster, and inspire calm confidence in their teams.

You don’t need to be busier. You need to be better at choosing where you spend your time.