10 Inspiring Podcasts to Fix Meeting Overload
- Fern Beauchamp
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Feel like your calendar owns you?
Well, it's time to take back control of your calendar.
While work meetings are a great way to collaborate, they're also a major productivity drain.
Ready to reclaim your calendar?
Meeting overload is a fixable problem. These ten podcast recommendations help you break free from meeting madness and get some work done.
Top 10 Podcasts to Fix Meeting Overload
Shorten Meetings – Don’t Default to 60 Minutes
Meetings don't have to suck up an hour by default. Try scheduling shorter 20 or 30 minute sessions. Parkinson's Law suggests that work expands to fill the time allowed for it – if a meeting is scheduled for an hour, it often takes the full hour. You can use this law to benefit your calendar – and productivity.
When you focus agendas, do asynchronous prep, or stand up rather than sit down for the entire meeting, you can trim a meeting to 15 minutes. This approach leaves more energy and brainpower for work. Shorter meetings mean sharper focus and better outcomes for everyone.
🎧 Podcast: WorkLife with Adam Grant: "Why Meetings Suck And How To Improve Them"
Prevent Meeting Overruns
When meetings routinely run over, productivity plummets and schedules unravel. Running over time costs more than you’d think. Overruns break concentration and wallop everybody's schedule. Using a clear agenda, ELMO, timekeeper, and a hard stop keeps meetings crisp, productive, and less likely to leave everyone exhausted and irritable. A disciplined approach to timing transforms the meeting experience, building a culture that values both results and respect for colleagues' time.
🎧 Podcast: Radical Candour: "The Billion-Dollar Cost of Bad Meetings" explores research-backed ways to make sessions run on time and maximise their impact with actionable norms.
Learn to Say No
Your proactive "no" creates room for productivity. Not every meeting deserves a "yes" and saying "no" isn't rude – it's an act of focus. In this episode of WorkLife, Adam Grant interviews Linda Babcock, professor emerita and co-author of “The No Club,” about practical strategies for protecting your time and setting stronger boundaries at work.
🎧 Podcast: Worklife with Adam Grant: "Protecting your time with Linda Babcock", to discover strategies for saying no, and why boundaries boost results.
Block Time for Deep Work
Deep work is where breakthroughs happen, yet constant meetings threaten to dissolve focus. Protect your most productive hours by scheduling time for undisturbed, meaningful work. Blocking out focus sessions on your calendar signals to others that you’re unavailable for meetings and lets you dive deep into complex tasks that drive real value.
🎧 Podcast: Huberman Lab with Andrew Huberman: How to Enhance Focus and Improve Productivity | Dr. Cal Newport
Set Clear Boundaries
Your calendar is a communication tool; use it to set clear boundaries about when you’re available and when you’re in focus mode. Busy signals are okay! Letting colleagues know you’re busy can prevent last-minute requests. However, if you say yes to a meeting when your calendar is already busy... think about what you're signalling to everyone. Boundaries aren’t barriers – they’re enablers of better teamwork and healthier work habits. By cultivating transparency around your schedule, you empower others to do the same, minimising disruptions and promoting sustained focus.
🎧 Podcast: Women at Work Podcast: "The Essentials: Setting and Maintaining Boundaries"
Ensure You’re Adding Value
If your role in a meeting isn’t clear, pause and reconsider your attendance. Your time is precious – invest it where you can contribute meaningfully. Before accepting an invitation, ask:
🤔 "Am I making a difference?"
🤔 "Will my input move the meeting forward?"
If it’s double "yes", actively engage by preparing in advance, contributing purposefully, and helping to keep discussions focused. Clear roles, defined agendas, and action items create accountability and impact. By being intentional about your attendance, you elevate meeting productivity and respect everyone’s time, making each session a valuable step toward your team’s goals. But if your expertise isn't essential or you’re one of 20 in the room and your direct reports are present, for example, consider opting out.
Podcast: The Inner Chief: "Saying No to Meetings" (Episode 247)
Use a Meeting Cost Calculator
Meetings are expensive! They consume hours, salaries, and energy. Using a meeting cost calculator helps you see the real price of each gathering in monetary and human terms. By visualising costs, you can challenge unnecessary meetings and sharpen decision-making. It’s a reality check that drives smart scheduling and keeps your calendar aligned with business goals. Financial clarity leads to meaningful cultural change across all levels.
🎧 Podcast: HBR IdeaCast – "Are You Optimizing Your Virtual Communication Practices?"
Make Time to Socialise Outside of Meetings
Not everything happens in formal meetings. Water cooler chats, coffee breaks, and casual team lunches build trust, speed up alignment, and often lead to faster decisions. Informal interactions build relationships. Making space for relationship-building deepens engagement. Socialising isn’t a distraction – it’s a catalyst for high-performing, connected teams.
🎧 Podcast: Radical Candour: "The Billion-Dollar Cost of Bad Meetings"
Ask: “Should This Be an Email?”
Not every topic merits a meeting. Many meetings could be replaced by a well-crafted email or shared document. Before booking, ask if a synchronous conversation is truly necessary. Asynchronous updates clear clutter off calendars, streamline workflows, and respect everyone’s time. When routine information travels by email, teams can read, respond, and take action in their own rhythm. This shift reduces the cognitive load and preserves meetings for topics that matter most. Declutter your calendar – more can get done in less time, just by switching channels.
🎧 Podcast: WorkLife with Adam Grant: "Why Meetings Suck And How To Improve Them"
Evolve Your Meeting Culture
Meetings reflect the habits and culture of any organisation. Inefficient habits hint at deeper issues. Periodically review meeting practices, solicit feedback, and experiment with new formats. Re-imagining meeting culture means building clear guidelines, embracing asynchronous communication, and creating transparency. Companies that proactively evolve reap the rewards: better engagement, stronger focus, and higher satisfaction. Treat every meeting as a reflection of organisational values.
🎧 Podcast: HBR IdeaCast: "Why Meetings Go Wrong (And How to Fix Them)"
In Summary
Fewer meetings mean more clarity, focus, and energy. Tap into these meeting culture podcasts to fix meeting overload—and take hold of your calendar, transforming it into a tool that boosts, not drains.
🎧 If you liked these podcast recommendations to fix meeting overload, then you will also like our 15 Top Leadership Podcasts for 2025.
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