A 2-minute audit that could give you back a morning a week

To begin, write down the five standing meetings that consume the largest share of your week. At least one of them has outlived its purpose, probably for months. Deloitte's 2025 study of 7,500 women across 15 countries reported that 36% feel more stressed than they did a year ago. Hartford-area leaders can't reshape their sector overnight, but a calendar can be reworked in two minutes, and habitual meetings are the simplest place to begin.

A meeting that has gone stale isn't a sign you've failed. Someone booked it for a purpose that has since faded, and invitations don't clear themselves. Someone should probably check this. Run each of your five through the ten questions listed below, then count the yeses separately for every one.

The verification

1. You couldn't name the decision this meeting reached last time.

2. Its update could fit in a two-paragraph email, and in some cases it already does.

3. Although more than eight people show up, barely three of them say anything.

4. It always runs to the full slot, regardless of what's on the agenda.

5. Many people quietly do other tasks during the session, and nobody appears bothered.

6. No one really owns the agenda; it's the same invite from two years ago, still circulating.

7. Should it get canceled this week, not a single person would wonder why.

8. You attend mainly out of fear of what could be settled in your absence, rather than because you have something to offer.

9. The actual decision gets made later, in a smaller conversation.

Step ten, final. It lands in your most productive hours.

Between zero and three yeses: it still justifies its slot on the calendar

Genuine work gets done in this meeting. It may still run long. In Hartford, ask for the agenda a day in advance and propose shortening the meeting to thirty minutes. Meetings stretch to fill the time they're given, and nobody has ever objected to getting fifteen minutes back.

Four to six: it has to be shortened.

The purpose is sound, but a lot of padding has built up around it. Send the organizer a single line: "Could we try this every other week and see what breaks?" Most organizers agree, since they're probably just as worn out. If nothing falls apart after a month, you've got your answer, and so do they.

Seven through ten: lifeless, yet it keeps its spot on the schedule

No one in Greater Hartford will call off this for you. If you are the one leading it, call it off and replace it with a short two-paragraph message. If you don't, decline the next three occurrences with "I'll catch up on the notes. Let me know if a decision calls for my input, and then watch how things unfold. In most cases, nothing happens at all, which is the finest outcome a calendar can produce.

Goal of the morning

The aim isn't fewer meetings for their own sake. It's moving your hours to where decisions actually happen and out of rooms where none do. Setting aside one morning every week adds up to a substantial block of time. It could go to a strategy document, a candid look at your own role in the market, or coffee with the one person who might shape your next move. Invitations for any of those will never show up on your calendar in Connecticut.

Let us know which of your five you canceled, and whether anyone noticed.