Free field note
Three questions before you accept the invite
A meeting is a tax on everyone who can write. This is the test. Paper. Two minutes. Then you accept, decline, or turn it into a paragraph.
The test
- What decision exists at the end?
- Who must be in the room for that decision?
- What could be sent in advance so the room is only for the decision?
If you cannot answer (1), it is a status meeting. A status meeting can be a paragraph. If (2) is more than four people, it is a performance.
The decline that is allowed to be short
I can do this in writing. I'll send the update by 3. If a decision still needs a room after that, I'll book 15.
No apology. No essay.
What this will not do
It will not make a political meeting disappear. It will stop you from adding a sixth 30-minute default to a week that already has eleven.
The 5-line update, the decision memo, and the sentence that turns "quick call?" into writing are in the kit.
Status is a paragraph
If the only outcome is “everyone knows where we are,” you already have email, a doc, or a five-line update. The room does not add information. It adds calendar debt and the social cost of looking like the person who refused.
Write the update. Send it by a named time. Offer fifteen minutes only if a decision still needs a room after people have read it. Most of the time they will not need the room. That is the win. Quiet. No speech about meeting culture.
Who must be there
Four people can decide. Eight people can perform.
If the invite list is a department, ask which two names must say yes or no. Put those two on a shorter hold. Offer the rest the write-up. You will be wrong sometimes. Political meetings stay political. This test is not therapy. It is a filter so you stop volunteering for the sixth default thirty minutes in a week that already has eleven.
“Quick call?” is not a plan
A quick call with no decision, no pre-read, and no owner is a status meeting wearing a hoodie. Same tax. Same fix.
Reply with the decline that is allowed to be short. Or send the update first and ask whether a call is still needed. Do not accept “quick” as a reason. Quick for them is often thirty minutes of context you could have skimmed in four.
When you do need the room
Some decisions need faces. Budget, conflict, a call that changes who owns the risk. Take those. Show up with the pre-read already sent so the room is for the decision, not the briefing.
The free sitting above is the gate. The 5-line update, the decision memo, and the sentence that turns “quick call?” into writing are in Fewer Meetings — $9.
All eight playbooks are $79 on /bundle if you want them in one sitting. The three questions still work free. Use them before you buy anything.