One Tuesday last spring, I counted eleven meetings on my calendar before 2pm. By the time I had a window to actually do the work those meetings generated, it was 4:30 and I was running on fumes.
I wasn’t burned out from the work itself. I was burned out from never having time to do it.
That’s when it hit me—we weren’t protecting the thing that actually matters. The thinking. The making. The focused, uninterrupted time where good work becomes great work.
So we ran an experiment. We blocked off a chunk of every week where nobody could schedule a meeting, send a Slack message, or pick up the phone. The rules were non-negotiable.
Here’s what happened.
The Hidden Cost of Context Switching
Meetings don’t just consume the time they occupy on a calendar. They drain cognitive energy.
Research shows that it takes the human brain roughly 15–25 minutes to fully context switch and regain deep focus after moving from one task or project to another. When a day is packed with meetings, the workday becomes fragmented into short, ineffective bursts of attention. Teams end the day feeling busy but unproductive.
In reality, a one-hour meeting often costs closer to an hour and twenty minutes of cognitive capacity. That “context-switch tax” adds up quickly.
The typical meeting delivers 10–15 minutes of truly productive conversation. The rest is lost to social catch-ups, waiting for late arrivals, or aligning on what the meeting is actually meant to accomplish. We default to scheduling 30- or 60-minute blocks simply because that’s how calendars are conditioned to work. If time exists on the calendar, teams will find a way to fill it.
Testing a No-Meeting Model
We’d heard stories of companies experimenting with no-meeting rules during the workweek. At first, it felt unrealistic—almost impossible. But if others could make it work, why couldn’t we?
We decided to test a dedicated weekly work block designed to give everyone uninterrupted time to focus on their highest-priority work. For it to succeed, the rules needed to be clear and non-negotiable.
The Ground Rules
No meetings. No internal or external meetings could be scheduled during the work block.
No Slack. Communication was limited to email or our project management tools.
Email optional. Could be turned off entirely until after the work block.
No calls or texts. Unless there was a true client emergency, in which case the lead project manager would step in.
These boundaries were essential. Without them, the work block would quickly become just another meeting-adjacent time slot.
Measuring the Impact
We ran a four-week pilot and collected feedback at the end of each week through short surveys. We wanted honest insight into how the time was actually being used and whether it was delivering real value.
We asked simple questions: How did you spend your time? Did it feel productive? Was it helpful to your overall workweek? Would you want to continue?
The responses were telling.
Some team members were immediate advocates. Others were understandably skeptical. But week over week, the results trended decisively in favor of the work block. Comments like “I find myself looking forward to the work block each week” became common.
Even those who were initially hesitant found the model valuable once it proved that focused time didn’t disrupt the flow of business. It improved it.
What We Didn’t Expect
We made work blocks permanent in July 2024. What started as a four-week test became how we operate.
But here’s what I didn’t expect: the biggest impact wasn’t efficiency. It was quality.
When you give people room to think, really think, the work changes. The ideas get sharper. The details get tighter. The things that used to slip through the cracks because everyone was sprinting between meetings? They stop slipping.
We’re not anti-meeting. Meetings serve a purpose. But we’ve stopped treating calendar space as free real estate. Time is the most expensive thing we spend, and we had been spending it without a budget.
Creating a culture of productivity isn’t a one-time initiative—it’s an ongoing practice. We continue to explore ways to reduce unnecessary context switching and protect focused work time. That includes training our team to rethink when a meeting is truly necessary, how much time it actually requires, and how we can expand the work-block model beyond a few hours each week.
If you’re thinking about trying this, here’s my advice: start with two hours. One block. Protect it like a client presentation—no exceptions, no “just this once.” Track how your team feels after four weeks.
You won’t go back.
Let’s Work Together